


Midnight Dreams

by jimalim320



Category: Jori - Fandom, Victorious, jade west/tori vega - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 16:17:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 23,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimalim320/pseuds/jimalim320
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jade needs a place to stay for the night, and after hours of wandering aimlessly she finds herself outside Tori Vega's house. Mulit-chapter Jori fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Night

It was late, or was it early; Jade didn’t know what the time was. All she knew is she needed to find a place to stay, a safe haven for the night, somewhere where she wouldn’t be alone. The whirlwind of memories from hours ago wouldn’t go away. She had been wandering the streets since; the streetlights went on nearly three hours ago. She was cold, she was alone, and most of all Jade West was afraid. Sure Jade has been scared before, who hasn’t, but this was different, she was legitimately terrified of the night, or _that_ night rather.

It all happened so fast.

The chaos of an inter monologue clouded her thoughts. Jade was so distracted she didn’t see the tree in front of her, with a jarring thud, Jade was ripped from her thoughts. Pulling herself off the ground, Jade brushed herself off, smiling at the sight in front of her, Tori’s house. _Of course I’d end up here,_ Jade thought to herself. There was something very comforting about Tori and her overall presence, something Jade never understood, something she always questioned. She climbed the tree she knew to be outside Tori’s bedroom window, she carefully made her way across the branch and maneuvered slightly to slide open the window and shimmy inside.

The room was illuminated by the soft light of the moon trailing in from the window. The light swept across the room, leading Jade’s eyes to the sleeping figure of Tori Vega. The way the light crossed her face accentuated her already stunning cheekbones. Jade slowly made her way to the edge of the bed, laid her hand on Tori’s upper hand while quietly asking, “Veg—Tori? Can I stay here tonight?” A half sleeping Tori mumbled incoherently, “O-of course Jadey Bear….Any-anything f-for you...” With that strange approval Jade slipped into the unoccupied side of the bed, which was quite small since Tori was more in the middle rather than to one side. As she began to settle under the covers, Tori rolled over facing Jade, gave her a light peck on the cheek and nestled her head into the crook of Jade’s neck, draping her arm over Jade’s waist.

Jade smiled. While normally Jade wasn’t the type for physical affection or interaction, having Tori wrapped around her was just what she needed. Felling her soft skin, smelling her light flowery perfume, and hearing her soft quiet breaths, provided Jade with such calm. It’s like she was transported to a dream world where everything slowed down, her mind was given a rest, and everything was ok. She let herself go sighing deeply. She didn’t know how things would play out tomorrow, what would happen if Tori became conscious enough to know Jade was there, all she cared about was here and now.  Focusing on the present, and Tori sleeping beside her, Jade closed her eyes as her body succumbed to sleep.


	2. The Next Day

_Beep Beep Beep…_ 6:30am. It was Monday morning. Jade had left about an hour before, she knew Tori wasn’t conscience enough last night to know she was even there, and she didn’t feel like explaining to her the reason she was there. It was better this way; things didn’t have to be complicated by it all.

Tori slowly rolled toward her night stand in attempt to turn off her alarm, she sat up in bed stretching her arms out wide above her head, yawning. She felt well rested, relaxed, and practically energetic. Considering most of her nights consisted of unattainable dreams, and constant restlessness, it was safe to say this was the best night sleep Tori’s had in a while.  It had been weeks since Tori had actually slept a whole eight hours uninterrupted.  She didn’t understand why now all of a sudden her body decided to allow her the proper amount of rest, but there’s no reason to complain.

She got out of bed and proceeded through her normal morning routine. She showered, got dressed, applied make up, styled her hair, she even ate breakfast, something she hasn’t had time to do with her previous lack of sleep. Today was a whole new day. Tori was finished with her routine and then some, and still had 30 minutes to kill. She couldn’t help but smile; it was such a refreshing start to her day. For once she isn’t already in a bad mood before that day even really started; it was an almost surreal feeling. Today she wouldn’t have to fake her happiness; she wouldn’t have to fight off sleep in the middle of her classes, she wouldn’t have to constantly suppress yawns. Yes today would be a good day, _a great day_ , she thought.

Tori was in such a good mood today, nothing could bring her down. Not even when her sister Trina left for school without her for the 4th time in the past two weeks, did Tori’s mood falter. She ended up catching the bus to school, forced to sit among irritating middle schoolers who wouldn’t stop asking her stupid questions.

The day had been going great for Tori; things just seemed to be falling into place. She got an A- on the calculus test she took last Friday, she wasn’t assigned any new homework in any of her morning classes, it was like the best day ever, or so she thought…

Tori strode to her normal lunch table where her friends were already seated, a spring in her step and lightly humming her current favorite song. She had a huge smile on her face as she settled down between Andre and Cat. “What’s your deal Vega?” Jade had sneered from across the table.

Tori’s brow furrowed in confusion, “What deal?”

“This..” Jade waved her arm in the air up and down in Tori’s direction, “this whole perkiness thing. It’s like you amped up the annoying 1000 times today.”  

Typical Jade West, Tori had gotten used to the constant abuse over the past couple of years, but that’s not to say it didn’t hurt. Even though she knew it was just words, empty words, Tori couldn’t help but feel a little pang of hurt each time Jade cut her down like this. She brushed it off her shoulders, like always, and answered her anyway, “I’m just in a really good mood,” although Jades attitude was the first thing to damper it all day, “I had the best night’s sleep. It’s the first time I’ve woken up in a while feeling refreshed. I don’t know why, but it was a great way to start the day, I guess I’ve been on a high ever since.”

Jade was taken aback from Tori’s answer, although she didn’t show it. She knew Tori slept like a baby through the night first hand. She knew Tori had unknowingly held her in her arms the whole night, never breaking contact with her from the moment she slid into the bed. If only Tori knew Jade was there, that she had kissed her cheek, and held her close. But why would that make her sleep well? Why did she do those things anyway? And why on Earth did she think it was ok to call Jade, _“Jadey Bear”_? So many questions flew through Jade’s mind in response to Tori’s explanation.

Jade hadn’t really put much thought into the meaning of Tori’s weird approval from the previous night; she was just so relieved she had a place to stay, and a distraction from her thoughts. So what happened again? Jade asked if she could stay over, expecting a million questions as to why, only to receive _“anything for you Jadey Bear,”_ a kiss on the cheek, and an all night long cuddle session. It was obvious Tori recognized Jade’s voice, and noticed her presence. But that still doesn’t explain why she did those things knowing it was Jade she was doing them to, nor does it explain how today, Tori seemed completely oblivious to the fact Jade was even there last night. Something didn’t add up, and Jade was racking her brain to figure it out.

“That’s stupid. How could a good night’s sleep put you in such a good mood?” Jade tried to come up with a more snarky remark, but knowing what happened last night clogged her brain and drained her ability to think clearly.

Tori shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I just feel well rested and energetic, and that makes me feel good.” Jade rolled her eyes at Tori’s bubble gum response, “Look why does it even matter to you anyway?” Tori was getting annoyed with Jade’s opposition to her feeling good.

“I don’t care Vega, I just don’t see how someone could be so annoyingly perky for no reason, or should I say such a lame reason. “ Jade fired back with a harsh tone, the amount of constant analysis about Tori’s reaction last night and her bubbly demeanor today was starting to bug Jade. She couldn’t help but get frustrated with it all. _Why_ , that’s all she wanted to know, _why?_

Tori was angry, even though she looked more glum on the outside. Jade was bringing her down, and it frustrated her to no end. _Jade just can’t let me be happy; she always has to find a way to tear me down._ She ignored Jade the rest of lunch, which wasn’t too difficult since Jade looked like she had checked out anyway, but every now and then she would see Jade staring at her, analyzing her, before quickly looking away. She didn’t get it.

The rest of the day went by slowly, and everything was the opposite from the morning. After her little spat with Jade at lunch, Tori was no longer in a great mood, not even a good mood at that. She got a D on her physics test, she was given a bunch of homework in her English class, and the cherry on top of it all, Trina wouldn’t give her a ride home cause she had a “date”, more like eavesdropping on a boy’s conversation then showing up wherever he and his friends made plans to go to that night.

Tori put her pile of homework and books in her bag before letting out a deep sigh, shutting her locker a little more forcefully than needed. She needed to find a ride home. Everyone she knew who had a car were either stuck at school working on various projects or already long gone. She didn’t have the option of waiting around for Andre to finish recording his new song for music class, or for Beck to finish editing his short film for theater. She needed to get home and start on this mound of homework, plus the stack she had been putting off until last minute that was sitting on her desk. Right about when she thought all hope was gone, Tori noticed Jade come out of the girls bathroom, scanning the empty halls of Hollywood Arts before making her way to her locker.

“Jade!” Tori exclaimed relieved the raven haired girl was still here, although she was still annoyed about lunch. “Boy am I happy to see you, I was hoping you—“

“There you go with the perkiness again, look whatever it is you want the answer is no.” Jade interjected, not letting Tori finish her request.

“But come on, all I need is a ride home, it’s only a few blocks, stupid Trina ran off to stalk another boy. Seriously I’m only asking cause you’re the only one still here who has a car.” Tori put on her best pouty face, trying to convince Jade to drive her home.

“I agree your sister is stupid, but the answer is still no. Now leave me the hell alone Vega.” And with that Jade slammed her locker shut marching out the doors before Tori had the chance to protest any further.

Tori was fuming at this point, she started crying, it wasn’t a sad cry, it was a frustrated cry, the kind of tears that fall when you are so physically and mentally drained that it’s all your body can do. She kicked a locker hoping to let out some frustration, which proved to only make her foot hurt, making her cry tears of pain. With that she wiped her eyes and shuffled outside to begin her long walk home, mentally cursing Jade the whole way home.


	3. The Second Night

It was midnight again. Jade climbed the same tree she ran into the night before. Carefully sliding open the window and making her way into Tori Vega’s bedroom for the second night in a row, Jade was hesitant. She had been lucky the first time, Tori hadn’t woken up and didn’t even know Jade was there. Who’s to say that will happen again? Knowing her luck, Jade expected Tori to wake up the first time, surely she’d have to wake up this time, there’s no way she’d be able to pull that off again.

When she entered Tori’s room for the second time that week, she was nervous. She hesitated for a moment before deciding pressing her luck wasn’t the best idea. She turned around making her way back to the window… “Jade.” _Busted._ Jade slowly turned around ready for the firing squad, the shower of questions Tori would throw her way. She furrowed her brow at the sight of a slightly trembling, yet still sleeping Tori. “Jade, stop…”

Jade slowly made her way to Tori’s bed, and her eyes weren’t deceiving her; Tori really was asleep. Tori kept tossing and turning mumbling a few incomplete sentences every now and then, “Why Jade?...it hurts…stop…” Quickly realizing Tori was having a bad dream and not chastising her for sneaking into her bedroom in the middle of the night; Jade crawled into the bed and gently tried waking Tori up, “Tori, Tori wake up.” She whispered over and over while lightly shaking the sleeping girl’s shoulder. On the fourth try, Tori was shook from her thoughts. She suddenly became violent and hysterical when she noticed Jade was there, she began thumping Jade’s shoulders yelling at her, “I hate you! I hate how you’re always so mean to me.” Her breathing was rapidly increasing and she was beginning to cry. “I hate how you don’t take me seriously.” The whole time her thumping against Jade’s chest continued yet it slowed down as the crying got harder, “And I hate when you ignore me, or how you pretend we aren’t friends. I hate it, but most of all I hate that I love you!” She was sobbing by this point, clutching the fabric of Jade’s shirt in her hand. She was too angry to even care she just admitted her deepest secret to the one person it was about. She wasn’t even quite sure what was happening at that point, all she knew is she needed to vent, to cry until she can’t produce anymore tears.

All of Tori’s pent up frustrating was pouring out of her in the form of tears. She was shaking uncontrollable, even after Jade had wrapped her arms around her she still continued convulsing. She buried her face against Jade’s chest, her hand still clutching Jade’s shirt. Jade slowly rocked them back and forth trying desperately to calm Tori down, but never once did she say anything. Her mind wouldn’t allow her to screw things up by saying something stupid, so instead she just held Tori in her arms praying she’d calm down enough to stop crying. Jade hated seeing Tori cry; she had never seen her so broken. Tori was always happy and so annoyingly perky, Jade couldn’t recall a time Tori was ever angry or upset. Tori was always very good at keeping her cool, sure she was maybe a little overdramatic at times, but they go to a performing arts school, that’s expected.

Jade held Tori close replaying the past ten minutes over and over in her head: Tori mumbling in her sleep about Jade, Tori waking up and attacking Jade with her fist, her crying and screaming at Jade. Each time she relieved it, Jade was cut down more and more. She felt terrible for treating Tori like she was nothing. Tori was never anything but nice to Jade, she practically begged her to be friends on more than one occasion. Tori never did anything to deserve the treatment Jade gave her. Jade thought it was all for show, it was their special dynamic in their relationship, they would banter, call each other out with sarcastic remarks, it was their “thing”. Jade never realized all those times they fought, or she called Tori names, that she was actually _hurt_ by it. Had she known she never would have let it go on for this long. She could only imagine the amount of pain and stress she must have caused Tori. She internally chastised herself for being so clueless, how could she not see what her words had been doing to Tori all those times?  It was evident by the way Tori was currently sobbing she had been holding it all in for quite some time. It destroyed Jade. She held on tighter to the still crying, but no longer trembling figure of Tori Vega.

About 45 minutes after Tori’s outburst she was out of tears, she was so exhausted from crying. She gave in to the comforting embrace of the girl who caused all her pain, nestling her head in the crook of Jade’s neck, and let sleep take her.

Only when Jade was sure Tori was asleep, did she give in to her own emotions. She placed a kiss upon the top of Tori’s head, holding her tight. All the while a lone tear trailed down her cheek, sliding across her chin to her neck as she squeezed her eyes closed trying to suppress the flood of tears she felt she didn’t deserve to unleash… 

 

 


	4. The Apology

_Beep Beep Beep…_ 6:30am. Tori stirred at the sound of her alarm clock. She hated having to get up so early, but she figured that’s the price of beauty though.  She was exhausted and the day hadn’t even started yet. As she slowly regained consciousness, Tori began to remember the night’s events. She remembered going to bed angry, having a bad dream about Jade, waking up in the middle of the night to find none other than the girl she was dreaming about in her bed. She remembered lashing out and baring her heart to her, crying in her chest, and falling asleep in her arms. It took her a while to convince herself it actually happened. She had been dreaming about Jade for so long, she assumed it was just another dream, another impossible memory. But this time it was different, it was real, and she could tell. There was something tangible about this “dream”, she could see the tear stains on her cheek, feel the empty void of Jade’s arms, and smell Jade’s light perfume on her pillow. It happened, it was real, and she felt weak.

She told Jade she loved her. She just let it slip out in her rambling; she hadn’t planned on telling her then, hell, she hadn’t planned on telling her at all. But there it was out in the open, there was nothing she could do about it now. Jade hadn’t reacted to it last night, but Tori chalked that up to the fact she was having a mini-meltdown. Tori was certain Jade would have something to say about it today.

She went about her morning activities, replaying the events of the past night, and thinking about how she would deal with Jade at school. She had two options: 1. Ignore Jade all day and pretend last night never happened, or 2. Man up and confront her. Tori knew avoiding Jade wasn’t going to make the reality of the situation go away, that and it would be impossible to do considering she had 3 classes with her. That left her with the latter option.

Throughout the remainder of her shower, her breakfast, and her car ride to school, Tori planned what she was going to say to Jade when she saw her at school. She memorized different “scripts” for multiple scenarios, no matter how Jade reacted; Tori had a response for it. She was ready……

Tori arrived at school 20 minutes early today, she was just so anxious about seeing Jade. As she got her books and stuff from her locker she went over every scenario in her head, practicing what she would say depending on Jade’s reaction. She was nervous to say the least, but that hard part was over right? She told Jade she loved her, that was done. That was the hardest thing to do right, admitting your love to someone. Nonetheless, Tori continued to nervously fidget, fiddling with all random things in her locker. She glanced across the hallway every 2 seconds to see if Jade was at her locker. Ten excruciatingly long minutes later Jade strode through the doors of Hollywood Arts making her way to her scissor clad locker. Tori took a deep breath while closing her locker, before making her way over to Jade.

Jade didn’t notice Tori coming her way; she was focused on the back of her locker, momentarily forgetting what she was doing. She had been distracted all morning. She couldn’t stop replaying Tori’s meltdown in her head. She could see the pain in Tori’s eyes, hear the sadness and frustration in her voice, and feel her helplessness through her trembles. And it was all her fault. Jade chastised herself for causing Tori so much turmoil. She felt terrible. Tori never deserved to be treated the way Jade treated her. She was never anything but nice and caring. Jade couldn’t believe she never noticed the impact her actions had on Tori. She hated herself for being so ignorant.

Jade had spent the night holding Tori in her arms, desperately trying not to cry. She didn’t deserve to feel bad, not when Tori was breaking down right in front of her. She wasn’t allowed to feel sad, because she was the reason this was happening, she was the bad guy. So she did the only thing she knew, she held Tori close, hoping that one day she could make it up to Tori. Make up for all her mistakes, all the insults, all the sarcastic remarks, to make up for being such a gank to Tori for these past couple years…

Jade was lost in thought when Tori showed up beside her, “Jade, Jade… _Jade.”_ Tori waved her hand in front of Jade’s eyes, breaking the trance she was in. Jade looked up at Tori for a moment before returning her gaze to her locker, this time actually gathering her books to put in her bag. “Jade about last night, I wanted to apo—“ Jade locked eyes with Tori, and held up a hand stopping Tori’s rambling.

“Look Tori, you don’t have to say anything. It’s fine.” It was the most sincere voice Tori had ever heard, she was dumbfounded. She figured it showed on her face cause Jade began to clarify a moment after, “You don’t have to apologize for the way you feel. I get it; I’ve been nothing but a gank to you for 2 years. I’m surprised you didn’t blow up on me sooner.” Tori just stood there shocked at the words coming from Jade’s mouth, she was prepared for Jade to yell at her, ignore her, all sorts of things, but this was not expected. She didn’t know how to react.

Jade laid her hand on Tori’s upper arm, “I’m really sorry for everything. I know this isn’t the most eloquent apology; I’m not very good at these sorts of things. Look, I have to get to class.” Jade looked Tori right in the eye to emphasis how true her words are, “I will see you later.” And with that Jade squeezed Tori’s arm, and made her way down the hall and around the corner, leaving Tori standing there staring at the spot Jade used to occupy.

Tori was surprised to say the least. She never expected _Jade_ to apologize to _her._ And she never mentioned anything about Tori’s confession, maybe she didn’t hear her, maybe she wanted to ignore it, or maybe she was fine with it, could she feel the same way? Tori quickly dismissed that thought as wishful thinking.

Suddenly the bell rang, brining Tori back to reality. She couldn’t focus for the rest of the day. All she could do was think about the past 24 hours, so much had happened, it was too much to take in, she needed time to process it all…..

After a long day of racking her brain, Tori was ready to call it a night. She had spent too much time today thinking about Jade, more so than usual. She couldn’t focus during class, or her nightly family dinner. She was so tired; she decided to go to bed 2 hours early. She didn’t care it was still somewhat light outside, she needed peace, and sleep was the only way that could happen. She was able to sleep a few short hours before hunger woke her up. She lazily made her way to her kitchen for a midnight snack, a glass of water and some apple slices. It might not sound like much, but it was always able to calm her down enough to go back to sleep. After finishing her snack, she made her way back to her room. As she neared her door, Tori could hear muffled footsteps and someone whisper, “Shit.” She slowly rounded the corner of her bedroom door, through the open crack she could see the silhouette of none other than Jade West. No longer scared of an intruder, Tori opened her door, walking over to Jade who was sitting on the floor below her window clutching her arm. “Jade?” Tori whispered, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, just hit my elbow on the window frame, funny bone my ass. That hurt like hell.” Jade winced as she clutched her elbow while slowly standing up. Tori made her way back to her bed, settling underneath the covers. Jade stood by the window, lightly holding her arm. Tori then motioned Jade to come over and lay down. Jade complied, slowly making her way into the bed next to Tori. “Jade, why are you here?”

Jade didn’t know how to respond. “I don’t really want to talk about it now alright Tori. Can we just sleep?” Jade lay flat on her back staring up at the ceiling, while Tori still sat upright next to her. Tori sat there for a moment, she wanted to know why Jade was here, why she was there last night, why she didn’t freak out on her this morning. There were so many things she needed to know, but she knew they could wait, because for some reason it wasn’t all that important at the moment. She couldn’t explain it, but somehow having Jade there made her forget about it all, when really it should have just reminded her of all these unanswered questions that’s been running through her head all day. All that mattered was despite everything that had happened, Jade was here.

Tori, much like Jade did before, laid back on the bed without a word. Jade may not want to talk about it, but she trusted Tori enough to come to her, and that was huge. Tori knew Jade would open up on her own terms; she just had to stick around for the time to come. And with that thought, Tori was content. She nestled under the covers, closed her eyes, and much to her surprise fell asleep moments after hearing, “Goodnight Tori.”


	5. The Fifth Night?

_Two Days Later:_ At school things had gone back to normal, or a new kind of normal I should say. Jade had let up on the sarcasticness and the bad attitude toward Tori, although not entirely. She was still Jade, and their friends would be suspicious if her and Tori all of a sudden became friends. She figured she had to ease into it, that way she wouldn’t have to explain the past few days to the gang. She wasn’t even ready to tell Tori everything, and believe it or not Jade trusted Tori more than anyone else in her life.

Tori understood Jade’s plan to ease into things around their friends. It was an unspoken agreement between the two of them, a secret of their own. And Tori loved that. She enjoyed sharing something with Jade, something that no one else knew about, it made it special. She appreciated how Jade was nicer to her, even if she was the only one who could tell. It showed that Jade really did listen to her, and she cared enough to change it. And that made Tori happier than ever.

Jade had slept over the next couple of nights. It had become a routine almost, she expected Jade to come crawling through her window, but it still surprised her in a way. Jade still hadn’t told her what was going on, or why she kept coming over. Tori never pushed Jade to revealing anything she wasn’t ready to talk about. _In time, just have to give her time,_ Tori would think to herself.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

It was around 11:30pm, Tori finished up the last bit of her calculus homework, and got ready for bed. She was thinking about her and Jade’s secret agreement when she heard a noise outside her window. It was midnight, and like clockwork she turned on her bedside lamp just in time to see Jade crawl through her window like she had for the past few nights.  

“Jade?” Tori questioned, as Jade closed the window and made her way toward Tori’s bed. “Yes, Tori.” Jade smirked as she motioned to Tori to scoot over, and got into bed. Tori laid on her side facing Jade, head propped up on her hand, “I know you didn’t want to talk about it the other night, and I’ve tried not to push you, but I’m starting to get worried, you’ve spent the night here for the past five days…” Jade interjected, “Six, actually. I’ve stayed here for the past six nights.”

“Six? When…wait…” Tori remembered the first night Jade stayed over, ‘ _Can I stay here tonight?” A half sleeping Tori mumbled incoherently, “O-of course Jadey Bear….Any-anything f-for you...” With that strange approval Jade slipped into the unoccupied side of the bed, which was quite small since Tori was more in the middle rather than to one side. As she began to settle under the covers, Tori rolled over facing Jade, gave her a light peck on the cheek and nestled her head into the crook of Jade’s neck, draping her arm over Jade’s waist.’_ “You mean that wasn’t a dream?...Oh my…” She instantly blushed, covering her face with her hands. She was so embarrassed, how couldn’t she tell that was real? She touched her, kissed her for heaven’s sake! She was mortified.

“Tori, I know what you’re thinking. It’s ok.” Jade grabbed Tori’s hands and pulled them away from her face, looking Tori in the eyes. “We’ve had more intimate moments than that; don’t you remember the second night I stayed here?” ‘ _“I hate you! I hate how you’re always so mean to me.” Her breathing was rapidly increasing and she was beginning to cry. “I hate how you don’t take me seriously.” The whole time her thumping against Jade’s chest continued yet it slowed down as the crying got harder, “And I hate when you ignore me, or how you pretend we aren’t friends. I hate it, but most of all I hate that I love you!”’_

Tori rolled over onto her back with a heavy sigh, “How could I forget? That’s not how I imagined that would go. As corny as it sounds I would spend my free time, oh hell the majority of _all_ my time, coming up with different ways to tell you how I felt. I’ve thought of so many scenarios, and that definitely wasn’t one of them.” She laughed nervously, crossing her arms over her chest after pulling the blanket up further. “Can we stop talking about this? Plus you never answered my question, why do you keep staying here?”

“Well technically, until now you hadn’t asked a question.” Tori rebutted, “That’s cause you never let me finish, please Jade, I’m worried about you.” She was pleading at this point, begging for something, anything. Jade shifted uncomfortably, she was silent for a moment trying to choose her words carefully, she wasn’t ready to accept everything that’s happened, but she knew Tori needed something, it was probably killing her not being able to help. That’s the kind of person Tori was, she was desperate to help everyone with everything all the time. It was a surprise that she was able to keep her own life together when she was so busy keeping everyone else’s in check.

Jade sighed before slowly saying, “….unlike you, I don’t have the perfect life…” Tori interjected, rolling over to face Jade again, “My life’s not perfect.” Now Jade had rolled on to her back, it made it easier to reveal things staring at the ceiling as opposed to the person your baring your soul too. “You may not think that, but you have loving and caring parents, you live in a comfy house, you even have a dumb sister to talk to when needed, you have a family, a home…..and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

From what Tori knew of Jade’s home life, which wasn’t much, she always had a feeling it wasn’t the healthiest family relationship. She hadn’t heard anything about Jade’s mom, and she had met Jade’s father once. From the 2 minutes she seen him, she could tell their relationship was less than perfect. I guess she always suspected Jade’s family life had been part of what made her so, well Jade. “I know your home life must be rough, but I still don’t understand where I fit into this, why you keep coming here.” It was a statement more than a question, if Jade wasn’t ready, she didn’t have to say anything, but Tori hoped she would say something.

Jade rolled over to face Tori, staring directly into her eyes, “Because Tori, as much as I hate to admit it, this is more of a home to me than my own.”

Tori didn’t know what to say, she never expected that response. Especially after all those times when Jade was less than cordial to Tori. She was saddened by Jade’s current demeanor. Jade was vulnerable, sad, on the verge of tears. Tori comforted her the best way she knew how, she pulled Jade into a tight hug. Jade gave in and let Tori hold her as she unsuccessfully tried not to cry. When they finally broke the embrace, Tori handed Jade the box of tissues she kept on her bedside table. Jade accepted and began wiping the tears off her face, and blowing her nose loudly. Tori laughed at how candid the whole scene was. Jade threw a balled up tissue in Tori’s face, Tori yelled, “Ewwww Jade! That’s so gross!”  Jade started cracking up laughing, “Relax! It’s not a used tissue, what kind of sicko do you think I am?”

They laughed together, relishing in how comfortable things had gotten between them. While they may not “officially” be friends yet, they both knew that secretly they were when they were in their own little world every night.  Once silence fell upon the two girls Tori had turned off her bedside lamp, indicating it was time to get some sleep. After Tori had settle back down, underneath the covers she could feel Jade grab her hand, gently interlacing their fingers. And with that act of affection, Tori went to bed with a big smile on her face….


	6. Little Notes

Jade woke up five minutes before Tori’s alarm was set to go off.  Her internal clock always woke her up at the same time every morning, it became a burden on the weekends when she tried to sleep in and failed, but for the past week it has come in handy. She needed to get out of the house before Tori woke up. She had a routine; she’d get up before Tori’s alarm, use the restroom and then slip out the window, all before Tori would wake up. Every now and then she would wake up a little earlier and take a shower in Tori’s bathroom before leaving. So far she had never been caught, thankfully.

Jade thought about last night and what it meant for her relationship with Tori. She had opened up to her, something she never expected. She never even liked Tori before all this happened, they weren’t friends, they were seen as “frenimies” by people who didn’t really know them. Despite what many people thought, Jade didn’t hate Tori. She secretly admired her, her talent as singer and actress, her ability to be kind to everyone, no matter how lame they might be, but most of all her perseverance, every time Jade made a sarcastic remark Tori was right there with her. Tori was the only one that tried to stand up to Jade, even though she wasn’t very good at it, Jade thought the attempt was enough, it was more than anyone else would do.

But even though they weren’t the best of friends, Jade felt that Tori was the only person she could really turn to. Seriously though, she had been spending the night at Tori’s house for a week now and she never pushed her into telling her why. Sure she had asked a couple times hoping Jade would tell her something, but she never forced Jade to talk if she didn’t want to. And Jade could tell Tori was genuinely concerned about her, and maybe that’s why she opened up to her last night. She didn’t want Tori to worry so much, so she tried to give her some sort of reassurance, without telling her everything. She wasn’t ready, not yet…

It was a beautiful, crisp, fall morning. The tree Jade used to climb in and out of the Vega household was turning a vibrant red color with leaves falling here and there. The abundance of missing leaves made it easier to climb, but it also provided less cover making it harder for Jade to hide from people who might notice her coming in and out. She was always worried someone would see her going in at night and call the cops thinking she was a burglar or something. Since there was beginning to be less tree coverage this time of year, Jade would get in and out as quickly as possible. Once Jade was on the ground she set out on her usual morning walk.

Jade’s route was a short four block walk. It only took her around six minutes to reach her destination, give or take a couple minutes depending on how fast she walked. On mornings it was raining, she had an alternate route that wasn’t in the open as much, it was a little longer, but it kept her dry for the most part. Either way, every morning Jade would sneak out of Tori’s house before she woke up to walk four blocks to an old parking lot behind an unused strip mall. Near the back of the nearly abandoned parking lot was Jade’s car.

As she approached her car, Jade hit the unlock button on her key fob and popped open the trunk. Her trunk was filled with clothes and shoes, and buried in the back were a couple cardboard boxes of stuff.  She picked out an outfit to wear for the day quickly changing, even though there was no one around, she was still self-conscience about someone seeing her half naked. She got in the driver’s seat, there was makeup scattered all over the dashboard. She used the mirror on the sun visor to apply her makeup, making sure to cover the tear stains from last night. The passenger seat as well as the back seat are filled up with more cardboard boxes, some marked “Books” “Random Stuff” “Clothes” etc. The car was full of boxes, driving the car was no longer an option; you couldn’t see outside the windows, it would be too dangerous. When she finished her makeup, she pulled on her jacket, grabbed her bag from the back seat and began the second half of her morning walk; the three block walk to school.

It was a shorter walk than the one from Tori’s house to her car. Even if she could see out the windows in her car she would still walk to school, she didn’t want anyone seeing her car, the boxes, the makeup, none of it. She didn’t want to explain herself to anyone, she shouldn’t have to, it’s her life and people should mind their own damn business….

 _That same morning:_ Tori awoke to an empty bed at the sound of her alarm as usual. Jade always left before she woke up. Tori understood Jade didn’t want to be caught by Tori’s family, but she still wished Jade would stick around. She hated having these great moments at night, only to wake up alone.

As she stretched her arms, trying to wake up her body, Tori noticed a little piece of paper on the bedside table next to where Jade was sleeping minutes before. She picked up the paper to see scrawled out in Jade’s handwriting, _“Thank You Tori-Jade”_ It was short and simple, and even though it was that way it touched Tori. It was so unlike Jade, to be sweet and thankful. It was the little things, like this note, that made Tori so happy. It was things like Jade apologizing to her the day after Tori’s meltdown. Things like Jade being so ok with Tori even after she confessed her love for her. Things like Jade telling Tori she felt at home in Tori’s house. It was all the things that’s happened since the first night that made Tori happy. She already knew she liked Jade in a more than platonic way for a long time, but after spending this past week with Jade, she only fell further…

Tori held the note to her chest, taking in a deep breath, relishing the moment before returning back to reality and getting ready for school…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

That night as Jade was climbing the tree as usual; she noticed something different about the situation. There was a note attached to the windowsill _, “I would never forgive myself if you fell and hurt yourself. I hope this decreases the chances of that happening. <3 Tori”_ Jade looked up and noticed the window was already open, just waiting for Jade to crawl inside. Jade smiled to herself, happy that Tori was so patient and supportive. She carefully folded the note and placed it in her pocket before sliding in through the open window to spend the seventh night with her new friend…


	7. Routine

The next few days went by pretty normal. Tori and Jade fell into a routine: at night Tori would leave the window open, around midnight Jade would come crawling through the window, some nights Tori would wake up when this happened and other nights she would sleep through it, and every morning Jade would leave before the alarm went off, and Tori would wake up to an empty bed minutes later.

On the nights where Tori would wake up when Jade came in through the window, they would spend an hour or so just talking. Just a light conversation about the most random things, from their day at school, old memories, tv shows, music, books. They talked about everything. They had become really close, and learned a lot about each other. They really had become friends, great friends; some could even say best friends. But neither of them put a label on it. Jade wasn’t quite ready to admit Tori was her friend, and Tori was too scared to lose everything they created over the past couple weeks.

Both of them were different. During school, and the daylight hours, they were merely friends by association, but in the midnight hours, when it was dark outside and no one could see them, they were more than that. They were two people who genuinely enjoyed each other’s presence, not simply tolerating each other for the sake of keeping the peace. There was something about the darkness that brought out their true colors. It was a bizarre sort of paradox, which even they couldn’t explain. It masked them from the reality of life, school; it released them from the pressure to maintain face, reputation. When it was dark, they were secluded, transported to their own little world where nothing really mattered, and nothing could bring them down from the incredible high they were experiencing.

Although Tori was worried about Jade, and still wondered why she kept coming over, she learned not to question it. Jade wasn’t ready to talk, and that was fine with her. She didn’t want to wreck the friendship they developed, cause even though Tori wishes they could be more, she doesn’t want to lose what she can have with Jade, what she now has; friendship. She promised herself not to push Jade into talking, as long as Jade was seemingly safe, no signs of abuse, she showed up to school, and she slept at Tori’s house. She figured the best way to earn Jade’s trust was to not push her buttons.

She secretly loved how she was the one Jade came to every night, the one she trusted to take care of her. She wondered if Jade ever opened up like this with Beck, surely she did they dated for practically three years. But Tori liked to believe otherwise, it made her feel special to think she was the only one that got to see this side of Jade, even if she was just lying to herself.

When Jade would arrive at Tori’s house, and Tori was asleep, she would be a little bummed. She enjoyed talking to Tori for that hour or so every night. It was the only time they really got to talk. Sure they talked at school, but they were constantly surrounded by their friends, who did not know about their special little arrangement. So if they were to randomly start talking like they were best friends, they would have a lot of explaining to do, explaining that neither of them wanted to admit. It was on these nights, where Tori was asleep, Jade would just crawl into bed, albeit a little pouty, and she would nudge Tori trying to wake her up. It never worked, although Tori would usually roll over and end up draping an arm across Jade’s chest, nestling her head into the crock of Jade’s neck, or unknowingly initiating some other form of physical contact. This never bothered Jade. In fact she had grown used to it. She wouldn’t admit to Tori she actually kind of enjoyed cuddling with her. There was something very comforting about Tori’s touch. She didn’t understand it.

She enjoyed the comfort of Tori’s arms so much she didn’t want to leave in the morning. But the risk of Tori finding out she was living in her car was too great. It’s not that she was afraid of Tori’s reaction; she knew Tori would be nothing but helpful and caring. And it was exactly that that she was scared of. Tori was stubborn, almost to a fault at times. She was afraid Tori would go overboard and try to help too much where she would do something crazy, like ask her to move in with her or something. Even though the sound of that was, at this point, very appealing, she knew that wasn’t an option, it couldn’t be. She just needed time to figure things out for herself, and find a way to fix it. She didn’t want Tori’s constant worrying to get in the way of that. So she hated leaving, but it had to be done.

Jade was glad Tori cared as much as she did; she never experienced anything like it. Tori was more devoted to Jade than both of her parents combined. Hell, Tori cared more than Beck did for the entirety of their relationship. It was a weirdly exhilarating feeling knowing someone was genuinely concerned for her wellbeing, someone who actually wanted to know how her day was, someone who was always there. It was refreshing, and Jade loved the attention.

The majority of the time, Jade and Tori got along really well. Things had gotten past the weird awkward stage they experienced the first few nights Jade stayed over. There hadn’t been any strife since Tori’s little meltdown on the second night they spent together. They learned how to coexist without biting each other’s heads off. Don’t get me wrong, things weren’t always sunshine and rainbows, Jade was still as stubborn and sarcastic, and Tori was still as annoyingly perky as ever. So it wasn’t unusual for them to clash every now and then.

As far as that goes, things hadn’t entirely changed between the two of them. Sure Jade finally referred to Tori as a friend, although she still didn’t like to admit she’d grown fond of her. They still had their usual banter; the only difference being it was more lighthearted. Jade still made fun of Tori using that terrible southern accent, but Tori was less annoyed by it, knowing it was all in good fun now. Tori still annoyed the crap out of Jade by being so optimistic and peppy, but she had a higher tolerance for it now.

So, overall things were still the same, and they liked it that way. Neither one of them wanted whatever it was they were doing, to change the way they are.  Because even though things weren’t always the greatest between them, Tori could attest to that, things would be too weird.

 

It was a strange relationship to say the least. These people who are considered polar opposites, who seemed to hate each other from the day they met, well maybe that was more on Jade’s end. Regardless of their history, they were great friends now, and that’s all that really mattered. Tori finally received the sort of positive attention from Jade she had been begging for since day one. While Jade finally received the love, care, and attention, she’s craved all her life. In an odd way they completed each other, and if you asked either one of them they’d tell you they were happier than they’ve ever been.


	8. Three Weeks

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the first night Jade wandered around at night winding up at Tori’s house. Three weeks since Jade first crawled through Tori’s window. Three weeks since Jade began spending every night in Tori’s bed. Three weeks since their weird routine began. Three weeks. Three long and interesting weeks…

As usual Tori went about her night time activities, brushing her teeth, combing her hair, getting ready for bed, and as of late opening her bedroom window for Jade to safely crawl through. As she lay in bed restlessly waiting the two remaining hours before Jade would make her appearance, she began to worry. The past couple nights were spent doing the same thing.

It had been three weeks, Tori never expected whatever Jade’s situation was to last this long. She thought this whole thing would be a week, a week and a half max. She never would have thought almost a month later Jade would still be climbing through her bedroom window every night. Tori admitted to herself that she had been distracted by all the excitement of being able to spend time with Jade, she forgot there was an underlying reason Jade kept coming over in the first place. They had practically been playing house. And Tori let her feelings overshadow what was important, helping Jade.

So there she lay for the third night in a row racking her brain and stressing out over Jade. She didn’t want to ask Jade what was wrong, but damn it, that seemed like her only option anymore. She tried to come up with some idea that she could get Jade to talk, but Tori learned from past experience not to bring up certain subjects in conversation, such as Jade’s family, unless she wanted to be shut out for a couple days.

One time she asked Jade what her mom was like, she was curious since she’s never heard Jade really mention her before, and after meeting Jade’s dad for the five minutes at Jade’s play, she wanted to know what kind of woman could marry such a cold man. Before Tori could even finish asking the question Jade had snapped, “Shut it Vega, I’m trying to sleep.” And with that she rolled over giving Tori the silent treatment for the rest of the night. It was the first time Jade had called her Vega in over a week. And Tori silently cried herself to sleep that night. It was possible Jade knew she was crying, Tori didn’t know, but whether she knew or not Jade ignored her the whole night.

Tori did not want to relive that night again. That’s what made this so stressful. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t just ignore the problem any longer, but she didn’t want to risk Jade flipping out on her. Chances are it would be much worse than last time.

As Tori was lost in thought, she didn’t notice Jade until she was over halfway through the window. “God, you think that would get easier after all this time, but damn it’s still a bitch…” Jade muttered to herself as she pulled her right leg through the window, she stopped herself as she noticed Tori was still awake, “Oh hey, I thought you’d be out by now. You didn’t look too good at school today.” She moved over to what had become her side of the bed, and made her way under the covers.

Tori moved over to give Jade more room, she let out a sigh and fell back on to her pillow, “That’s cause I hardly got any sleep last night.” Jade furrowed her brow and gave Tori a curious look as she lay back as well. Tori decided to go for it, it was a loose loose situation as she saw it so she might as well try and get some information out of Jade. She rolled over and rested her head on her hand, “Jade…I..It’s…just… I don’t know if you realize…”

“On with it Tori.” Jade cut her off trying to stop her from stuttering and just spit out whatever it was she wanted to say. Tori gave her a ‘stop being funny, I’m trying to be serious’ look, and that made Jade squirm a bit. She was scared as to where Tori was going to go with this. “Jade, you’ve been staying here every night for the past three weeks. I know you don’t want to talk about it…” Once Jade realized where Tori was going with this conversation she started to roll away from Tori, only to be stopped by Tori pulling her back to her original position.

Tori wouldn’t allow Jade to change the subject, not this time. “Jade, I’m worried about you.” Her eyes shown with concern, and Jade didn’t know whether to scoff at Tori’s sappiness, or to breakdown in tears. Jade kept her cool, though her voice did break as she asked, “Tori, why do you care so much?”

This time Tori pulled away, she lay on her back staring at the ceiling for a moment. She began fiddling with her hands, like they were the most interesting things in the world. She became shy and quiet, and her body began to lightly tremble, “Because….” She looked at Jade’s hand and scanned her eyes up to meet Jade’s, “I love you.” And as soon as it was said her eyes flashed back to her hands, resuming their fidgeting.

Jade knew what Tori meant; she knew it was more than platonic friend love. She had found that out three weeks ago. She remembers everything about that night like it was yesterday. She replayed that night over in her mind. Jade thought it was funny how she didn’t mind that Tori felt that way, even when Tori first admitted it, Jade had no problem with it. Normally a mind blowing confession like that would either bother you, or at the least, evoke some sort of emotion. It’s not that it didn’t shock her or anything, it’s just she didn’t see anything wrong with it. Jade always believed love was love, no matter if it was between a man and a woman, two women, or two men, it didn’t matter. Who was she to judge what people felt. So it did catch her a little off guard finding out Tori felt that way, but she never judged Tori because of it. Jade would never admit it, but since then she did entertain the idea of dating Tori once or twice. She never thought too much about it, but she did think it would make one hell of a story.

After a moments silence Jade took one of Tori’s hands in her own, and squeezed it tight. “Tori, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. And I’m not just talking about over these past three weeks. You’re always there when I need you, hell even when I don’t, you’re still there.” She lightly laughed, and squeezed Tori’s hand again, “I…I need you to trust me…”

Tori finally made eye contact with Jade, “Of course I do.” And as soon as it was said Jade leaned over pressing their lips together. It was a chaste kiss, but it was not romanticized. It’s desperate, and full of all these emotions that neither of them could really distinguish. Jade was trying to say what words couldn’t express, like trying to somehow transfer all of her thoughts and feelings to Tori through this kiss. It was hunger, the need to feel something. She couldn’t think of any other way to tell Tori this, she increased pressure and Tori could feel the tears running down Jade’s face. As Jade finally pulled away she pressed their foreheads together, eyes squeezed tight and whispered, “I need you.” It’s true Jade needed Tori. She needed that one person who cared, the one who is always there for her, and someone who would never give up on her. She needed Tori more than she ever wanted to admit, yet somehow she was relieved.

After hearing Jade’s confession Tori went in for another kiss. It was a sweet and light kiss, and this time it was all about comfort. She was trying to reassure Jade, and let her know she is there. Sometimes words just can’t express what physical affection can, and Tori knew if she jest said the words, they would have empty meaning. This kiss was shorter, but somehow it meant so much more. Tori knew these kisses weren’t about love or romance; they were about hunger, emotion, need, and comfort. She didn’t say anything in response, nor did she question Jade further about what’s been going on. Instead she just wiped a tear from Jade’s cheek, squeezed her hand, and used her free arm to pull Jade in a tight embrace, one they would stay in for the remainder of the night.


	9. The Morning After

_Beep Beep Beep…_ 6:30am Jade awoke to Tori’s alarm clock, _Shit, I was supposed to leave ten minutes ago._ She was still tangled up in Tori’s arms, but at the sound of the alarm Tori rolled over releasing Jade from her death grip. Jade was relieved Tori hadn’t woken up; she slowly got out of bed, careful not to make too much noise.

 It was an exhausting night, Jade had cried for a long time ,all awhile Tori held her close telling her it was ok to cry. Jade appreciated that especially, she hated how whenever people would cry in movies and in reality, people would try to comfort them by saying “it’s alright” or “everything’s going to be ok.” _Bullshit._ Is what Jade thought, who were they to promise the future, it wasn’t possible. It was a lie. That’s why she didn’t get angry at Tori for comforting her. Tori didn’t promise her anything she couldn’t keep; she didn’t tell her lies or go on being super optimistic. She did the best thing she could; she told her “it’s ok to cry”, “just let it all out”, “I’m right here”. 

Jade eventually ran out of tears, at that point she looked up at Tori, expecting her to have fallen asleep already, but much to her surprise, when she looked up her eyes met those of Tori’s never breaking contact. Tori smiled, and with that Jade instantly felt better. She smiled back before nestling closer to Tori and letting sleep catch up to her.

God only knows how long Tori stayed awake after that. She wanted to be awake in case Jade woke up and needed something. She wanted to protect Jade. It killed her to see Jade so broken down, so vulnerable. Jade was the toughest person she knew, so to see her so upset, it broke her heart a little. Once she noticed Jade’s slowed heart rate, and her steady breathing, indicating she was asleep, Tori placed a kiss upon Jade’s forehead before letting sleep take her as well….

Jade was about to leave through the window, when she looked back to find Tori still sleeping soundly in her bed. _The alarm!_ Remembering the alarm already went off, Jade made her way back towards the bed. She set Tori’s alarm to go off ten minutes from her original alarm time. It gave Jade plenty of time to get out and to her car before Tori woke up, while giving Tori enough time to get ready and to school on time. Jade quickly scrawled a little note explaining the alarm change and left it next to the alarm for Tori. She leaned over kissing Tori on the forehead, before turning to leave.

As Jade walked to her car, she reflected on the events of last night. She hadn’t quite understood why she kissed Tori, but in the moment it felt like the best thing to do. Even thinking about it now, Jade decided there wasn’t any other way to express what she was feeling. It felt right, and it still did. And when Tori kissed her back, she knew Tori understood the point she was trying so desperately to make in her kiss. She knew Tori was doing the same, explaining that she was there for her, completely, and whole heartedly.

There were so many thoughts going through Jade’s mind, it was hard to focus on any one thing for longer than a few seconds. It took too much energy to try and keep her mind on one topic, so instead she decided to ignore it all, and just relax and be happy. She woke up in the arms of someone who truly cares about her. She decided to focus on the fact that for once in her life she has someone who is there for her, no matter what, someone who cares, and someone who makes her feel like things could get better, gives her hope. Things might not be the best right now, but she believes, with a little help from Tori, she will be able to make it through. She’s not alone anymore. And with those thoughts in mind, Jade smiled all the way to her car, and then to school….

 _BeepBeep Beep…_ 6:40am Tori’s alarm went off for the second that time that morning. Tori reluctantly rolled over to stop the beeping. Upon seeing the time, Tori became confused as to why the alarm had changed. That’s when she noticed Jade’s note: “ _Didn’t want you to be late. Hope you enjoyed those extra ten minutes of beauty sleep, not that you need it. –Jade”_ The “not that you need it” was very faint; Jade must have erased it thinking it was too nice, but Tori could still read it. Erased or not, Jade had written it, so there was truth to it. She basically just called Tori beautiful. Tori blushed, and she could only giggle at how giddy she felt. _Today was going to be a good day._ Tori thought.


	10. Thunderstorm

_One Week Later:_ The week flew by for Tori and Jade. Ever since their little game of house started, the time just escaped them. The routine they found themselves in prevented them from noticing the passing days. Every night for the past four weeks Tori would leave her bedroom window open before going to bed, and like clockwork, at midnight Jade would come crawling into the Vega household, spend the night, and leave in the morning before the alarm clock rang. That was all up until tonight…

As usual Tori left her window open, and after an exhausting day at school, and quickly fell asleep to the sound of the wind gently blowing outside. Little did she know, she would wake up only a few short hours later…

3:00 AM: A loud clap of thunder awoke the sleeping Tori Vega.  She jolted upright in her bed, noticing Jade was not there. She looked at the time, then looked towards the window; it was still open, indicating Jade never came in because she always closes it before laying down.  There was water from the rain storm outside blowing in through the window, leaving the window ceil and the floor drenched in a puddle of water. _Shit._

Tori ran over to shut the window, turned on a light, and cleaned up the puddle before it could damage the floor. She began to worry about Jade. So she did something she knew she probably shouldn’t, but would look back and say she’d never change a thing...She grabbed a raincoat, shoes, an umbrella and her car keys, and raced for the door…

Ten Minutes Later: Tori stood outside a car in a random parking lot, in the rain, clutching her umbrella and knocking on the driver’s window.

Jade West was shivering in the front seat of her car, soaking wet, using a coat to warm her up. She was startled by a knocking sound on her car window, _Tori?_ She was surprised to see her here, but then again at the same time she wasn’t. She should have known Tori’s overwhelming need to help people would overcome her, and she’d figure it out. She figured the storm must have woken her up and she noticed she wasn’t there. But the fact that Tori cared enough to come out in the storm to check on her, make sure she was alright. Jade couldn’t believe it, Tori’s selflessness was such a pure thing, it never ceased to amaze her.

She opened the door, and Tori practically dragged her out of the seat. Jade shivered at the contact of the cold night air and strong wind against her wet clothes, she stuttered, “I couldn’t climb the tree.”  There was a cut near her eye and scrapes on her cheek. Tori figured the rain made the bark on the tree slippery, and when she tried to climb it, she must have lost her footing, making her fall face first into the tree trunk.

Tori pulled Jade under the umbrella, and wrapped her arm around her, bringing her close. She wanted to use some of her body heat to warm Jade up, “Let’s get you into some dry clothes; don’t want you to get sick.” Tori walked them back to her car, and drove them back to her house. The drive was silent, not a word was said until they were parked in Tori’s driveway when Jade asked, “How long?” Tori knew exactly what she was talking about, how long had she known about Jade living in her car. She answered, “About a week.” Jade began to speak, to explain why, but Tori laid her hand on Jade’s shoulder, “I think we’ve been through enough for one night.” Jade looked at her with watery eyes and whispered, “Thank you.” Tori hummed in reply, getting out of the car and opening Jade’s door helping her out.

A few minutes later Tori instructed Jade to sit on her bathroom vanity so she could clean her cuts. Jade sat there with her hair wrapped up in a towel, wearing a dry pair of Tori’s pajamas. Tori cleaned Jade’s cut, the whole time neither girl said a word, but Jade stared intently at Tori’s facial expressions, trying to read her. The looks on her face were complete concentration, and great concern, Jade could tell Tori felt like it was her fault she got cut. How could she feel responsible for something she had no control over, and doesn’t even link to her in any significant way, that thought was beyond Jade.

 Tori placed a bandage over the cut near Jade’s eye, and without thinking, placed a kiss atop the bandaid. She blushed when she realized what she did, “Sorry that’s just something my mom would do whenever she would patched Trina and me up when we were little, you know,” she said the next bit in that adorable accent she uses to put emphasis on things, “’kiss the boo-boo to make it better.’ I guess it rubbed off on me.” She shrugged her shoulders, and looked down at the floor to hide her red cheeks. It wasn’t a second after Tori finished explaining, that Jade grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her in kissing her.

Both girls knew this kiss was different than the ones they shared a week ago. It wasn’t desperate, or comforting. It wasn’t about expressing all the emotions neither of them could say in words. It didn’t last very long, and it was more chaste than the previous kisses. But it spoke volumes as to their relationship, and where it was going. When they broke apart, Tori tried her best to contain her excitement, to have Jade initiate a kiss, one that wasn’t soaked with tears, made her heart beat a million times a second. Jade was surprised by her sudden action; she didn’t really think about it, it just felt right in that moment. She wouldn’t have done things any differently.

“Come on, let’s get some rest before we have to get up for school in a few hours.” Tori helped Jade off the vanity counter, and led her to the bed. They laid down, Tori rolled over to turn off the lamp, once she laid back down Jade grabbed her hand and started playing with her fingers. Tori just watched Jade’s face as Jade watched their intertwined hands and wiggling her fingers. Tori smiled thinking to herself, wishing she could go to bed like this every night, with Jade lying next to her. It was the perfect dream, and with those thoughts Tori fell asleep, happier than ever.


	11. Surprises

_Beep Beep Beep…_ 6:30AM. Tori begrudgingly woke up pressed against a warm body. She wiped the sleep from her eyes trying to focus on the foreign scene she woke up in. _Jade._ Yes, Jade West was still there. The alarm went off as usual, but Jade was still there, and that was unusual. Up until this day, Jade had been painstakingly careful to leave at least 10 minutes before Tori’s alarm went off so as not to risk Tori finding out about her living situation.  Although last night proved that somewhere along the way she had slipped up. So for Tori to wake up with her arms wrapped around a still sleeping Jade, was an unexpected surprise.

Tori placed a light, almost ghostly, kiss upon Jade’s temple before whispering in her ear, “Jade. We need to get ready for school.” Jade slowly rolled back into Tori to look at her face to face. Tori smiled propping her head on her hand staring down at Jade, “You didn’t leave.” It was a quiet statement, it wasn’t a direct question, more of an observation, but Jade answered anyway, “I didn’t want to.” _I never do._ Tori blushed lightly; she didn’t know how to respond. So instead she reluctantly let go of Jade and got out of bed.

“We really should get ready for school. We could walk together, you know so Trina doesn’t find out you were here. I’m gonna go take a shower, and if you wanted you could take one after. You could borrow something to wear or we could just stop by your...car on the way to school. It really doesn’t….” Tori went on and on. She probably would have ran out of breath from talking so much if Jade Hadn’t interrupted her.

“Vega! Look I really don’t feel like going to school today, especially with this on my face.” She pointed to the bandaid Tori applied to Jade’s cut last night. “I’m exhausted from last night, and skipping one day isn’t gonna hurt.” Tori gave her a skeptical look at the last part, “Ok skipping _a few_ days isn’t gonna hurt. Come on, what’s the big deal?” She gave Tori her best pouty face.

“I…I don’t know Jade.” Tori was unsure, she didn’t think skipping was a good idea, plus she never skipped before. She had always been ‘little miss goody-two shoes,’ she followed the rules, did the right thing, and skipping went against all that.

Jade could tell what Tori was thinking, “Don’t tell me Little Miss Vega is scared of getting caught, what you think you’ll get a detention or something?” Jade sat up a little on the bed, smirking at Tori who was standing across the room by her dresser. Tori refused to let Jade laugh at her for this. She waved her arms a couple times while scoffing before finally resting them on her hips, “No! I..I just…I have a test! In-a math, yep _huge_ test. I can’t miss that.” She was standing by the bed now.

Jade could tell Tori was bluffing just from her body language, but regardless she knew it was a lie, “No you don’t. We have math together, remember? Oh yeah, you don’t pay any attention in that class.”

“Yeah I do!” Tori shouted defensively, putting her hands on her hips.

Jade rolled her eyes, “I’m sure, that explains the D you got on our last quiz.”

Tori leaned over to playfully smack Jade’s arm, “Shut up! Math is hard!” Tori was whining at this point.

“Alright, alright. But seriously, it’s Friday nothing important ever happens on Friday. Plus, no one’s gonna think you skipped; they might think _I_ skipped, but not you. They’ll just think you were sick, and by the time Monday rolls around no one will even remember you were gone. No one will connect the dots and realized we skipped _together_.” She was trying every argument she had to convince Tori it wasn’t the end of the world if she didn’t go to school for one day. She tried the last thing she could think of, “Come on Tor, _please_?”

That’s it. Tori couldn’t resist how cute Jade looked when she pouts. That cute little pucker and those sad puppy dog eyes, it melted her heart, and she gave in. Sighing deeply, “Okay.” And with that, Jade jumped up off the bed, enveloping Tori in a bone crushing hug. Tori was completely surprised by how un-Jade like Jade was being, it was weird, but she would never turn down a hug from Jade, any excuse to get close to her. But before Tori could properly return the hug, Jade had let go and jumped back in bed, pulling the covers up high on her chest.

Tori pointed her finger toward Jade, “Oh no! I agreed to skip with you, and we are not going to skip just to sleep the day away. Come on, get dressed.” She pulled the covers off the bed, and Jade in the process. “I have an idea.” Tori turned around and made her way back to her closet. Jade groaned and buried her head in a pillow, and before she knew it Tori had yanked the pillow away demanding, “Now.”

Again Jade groaned and got off the bed, she pushed Tori out of the way of the dresser to find a decent outfit to borrow, that proved to be a challenge as Tori’s wardrobe lacked the dark side of the color spectrum Jade was used to. But eventually she found something suitable, it’s not like people would see her anyway since they’d all be at school. They spent the next hour taking their respected showers and getting ready. Jade complained the whole time about having to do something, and anytime she’d ask Tori what they were doing she would ignore her either by smugly shrugging her shoulders or by walking out of the room all together.

They were downstairs about to leave when Jade asked again with extreme impatience and whining, “Tori seriously, where are we going?” Tori just opened the front door, turned to face Jade, “It’s a surprise.” And she walked out the door into the driveway leaving Jade on the doorstep. Jade groaned for the millionth time that morning, and shut the door as she muttered to herself, “I hate surprises.”

 

 

 


	12. Surprise Destination

They drove for twenty minutes. Jade was silent the whole way. She was frustrated that Tori was forcing her to spend her skip day doing anything other than sleeping. But Jade thought on the bright side the fact that she was able to convince Tori to skip school in the first place was an amazing feat, one to be proud of, even if she wasn’t able to sleep in like she wanted to.

But still the whole aspect of this surprise trip drove Jade crazy. She hated surprises, but what she hated more was Tori’s smugness about it. Tori knew Jade didn’t want to go anywhere, and of course she knew how she felt about surprises, it’s like Tori was using all of that information to control her in some way. To make up for the fact that Jade had convinced her to skip, an eye for an eye, if Tori was gonna let them skip, then Jade needed to abide by Tori’s game plan.

Jade decided in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter what they did. She was happy she didn’t have to go to school, and to her surprise she was just really happy she got to spend some one on one time with Tori outside of Tori’s bedroom and in the daylight. Yes she saw her at school, but it’s not like they were ever alone, or even could be for that matter, not without having to explain to people why they are friends all of a sudden.

So for the whole ride Jade was silent, just to spite Tori and her unwillingness to tell her where they were going. All the while though Jade was content, although she hates surprises, she was curious as to where Tori was taking them. Tori was silent for the duration of the car ride as well, she was secretly enjoying Jade’s discomfort. She thought it was cute how she refused speak or acknowledge her, giving her the silent treatment. Tori knew Jade would much rather be sleeping in, but she had a plan that would hopefully make up for it in the end.

It wasn’t until they pulled up in an empty parking lot that Tori finally broke the silence. “We’re here!” Jade was confused, all she saw was some abandoned rundown buildings and an empty parking lot, what on Earth was Tori thinking taking her here? Tori could see the confusion in Jade’s features, “Come on, you’ll figure it out.” Tori got out of the car and waited for Jade to follow her lead. They made their way across the parking lot to a chain-link fence surrounding an old building. Tori began to climb the fence when Jade cut in, “Tori what the hell?”

“What I thought this would be right up your alley.” Tori chirped loving Jade’s reaction; she can’t believe she still has no idea where they are. Jade protested, “Breaking and entering is not on my fun things to do list.”

Tori grinned and replied sarcastically, “Really? Can I get a copy of that list?” She began climbing the fence again ignoring Jade’s protests. She hopped to the ground before returning her attention to Jade who was still standing on the other side of the fence confused as hell. “Jade come on, just trust me please?” Tori made the best pouty face she could muster without laughing. Jade still seemed skeptical about trespassing, but she knew Tori. That meant she knew one way or another she was going to have to give in and climb that fence. She figured she’d climb it now than have Tori bug her for god knows how long until she caved. So without much hesitation Jade grabbed ahold of the chain-link fence and joined Tori on the other side.

Tori brought them around to the opposite side of the building where she easily picked the lock on the door and led them inside. Within moments after Tori turned the light on Jade recognized where she was. She wondered how she could possibly not recognize the place from the outside. She thought back to the last time she had been in this place, it looked like no one had been in it in a while, rundown, dusty. It’s possible no one had been in it since she was last there about two years ago.

The last time Jade stepped foot in this building was on the night of her play, the one that Tori helped her produce two years ago. She remembered how Tori had went through the trouble to help her put on the play by finding that crazy lady from Wok Star to pay for the venue and whatnot. It amazed Jade at the time, Tori’s kindness and determination to help. And even now as she recalled that time, Jade was still impressed by Tori. At the time she couldn’t express how much everything Tori did meant to her, and back then she wouldn’t admit it either, as those were the days they considered each other enemies, well at least Jade thought so, Tori had always been to nice and sweet to ever truly hate Jade.

“Remember it now?” Tori asked knowing full well what the answer was. She could tell by the look on Jade’s face she was recalling the memories attached to this place from so long ago. Jade didn’t answer her, instead she just walked around the place examining the stage, the backstage area, and other various places before sitting down in one of the seats in the front row. Tori went to sit next to her when Jade asked, “Why did you bring me here?” The look on Jade’s face was full of sorrow, it confused Tori, this was not how she imagined Jade to respond, although she didn’t really know what to expect in the first place, but she could say for sure Jade looking upset wasn’t the reaction she would pick.

Confused Tori calmly explained, “Well…I thought it would be fun to reminisce on some of the things from our past, to see how our friendship has developed over time. I know it probably sounds stupid to you, but this place, helping you with that play; it meant a lot to me. I like to think this is where you first started seeing me as more than the annoying perky girl who kissed your boyfriend on the first day of school.” Jade just sat there staring at the ground, glancing up every now and then to look at the stage in front of her. She didn’t look at Tori the whole time she was explaining, nor did she respond when Tori started talking. Instead she got up, jumped on the stage and screamed. Jade’s unpredictable act startled Tori, scared her even, she was worried and confused. She never expected this day to take such a weird turn of events.


	13. Contention

Jade just sat there on the stage with her back turned toward Tori. She was still, and she was silent. She sat there for about five minutes, all the while Tori stood near the seats watching. Tori had no idea what was going on. She finally decided to go over to Jade; she placed a hand on Jade’s back lightly kneeling down to get a better look at Jade’s face. “Jade?” She began to rub small circles into Jade’s back, but Jade still sat there silently with her face covered. “Jade, what’s going—“

Before Tori could even finish asking her question Jade had shoved Tori’s hand away and snapped, “Leave me alone, seriously just go away!” Jade turned around quickly, Tori could see the tears running down her cheek, that’s why she was covering her face. Tori took a step back, but didn’t leave. She stared Jade down and resisted, “No.” Jade glared at her, angry that Tori wasn’t leaving.

“No Jade, I’m not going to let you push me away like this, not this time.” Tori got worked up, all the patience and gentleness she had been treating Jade with over these past few weeks was disappearing. She was tired of Jade’s hot and cold attitude. She couldn’t deal with it anymore. “What the hell is going on with you?! I’ve given you space, I’ve stopped asking, pushing, for you to let me in. I’ve let important things slide to benefit you. Well you know what Jade, not this time, I’m not going to pretend last night never happened.” She thought back to the thunderstorm, the open window, picking up Jade from her car, patching up the cuts on her face, when Jade kissed her, cuddling all night, and waking up with Jade in her arms for the first time. Something changed between them last night; Tori knew that, even Jade knew that although she wasn’t ready to admit it.

Jade looked offended at Tori’s implication, this had nothing to do with the intimacy they shared last night. And Jade thought Tori was vain for thinking that was the reason for her outburst, as if what they did or didn’t do was the most important thing. “This isn’t about last night.”

Tori took a step forward to show Jade she wasn’t backing down, and no matter how loud Jade yelled or how much she threatened, she was not going to give up. This fight was crucial, it needed to happen, if they were ever going to move forward Tori needed to get this off her chest. “It’s not, than what is it about then? Care to inform me? You can’t keep leaving me in the dark, especially now. You live in your car Jade! That’s not normal! Something is seriously wrong that you’re not telling me!”

Tori thought back to the day she found out about Jade living in her car. It was a week ago, on a Saturday morning… _Jade had gotten up at her usual time and left through the window as always, although this time Jade messed up, she accidentally woke Tori up when she was maneuvering through the window. She banged her knee against the window ceil cursing at the pain a little too loudly. Jade paused for a moment frightened she woke up Tori, she watched her sleeping friend a moment before deciding she was safe. Little did she know Tori really was awake, she just pretended to be sleeping. At first Tori thought she pretended to sleep because she could see how scared Jade was, she thought she was helping her out because she knew Jade left this early for a reason. But after Jade closed the window and was out of sight, Tori got up. She slowly made her way to the window; just in case Jade was still in the tree. Peering outside, she noticed Jade rounding the corner at the end of the block. And before Tori could think about what she was doing she was dressed and out the window in pursuit of her fleeing friend._

_She quickly caught up to the sight of Jade’s retreating figure, making sure to stay at least half a block behind to avoid being caught. The whole time she followed Jade, Tori wondered why she was doing this. She was curious as to where Jade went after leaving her house, but she knew Jade wasn’t ready to tell her, and she planned on respecting that. But no matter how good of a person you are, curiosity usually wins out, and that’s exactly what happened with Tori._

_She followed Jade all the way to the empty parking lot that housed Jade’s car. Almost instantly upon seeing Jade’s car full of boxes and clothes, Tori knew why Jade kept spending the night at her house, because a warm bed beats a cold car seat any day. But why was Jade living in her car? What could have happened that would force her to be in such a predicament?_

_Tori felt a rush of emotion. Seeing Jade open her trunk to reveal her makeshift closet, her using the dashboard as her makeup table, everything about it made Tori’s heart hurt. In that moment she understood why Jade didn’t want to tell her what was going on,_ but as for now after last night, after revealing she knew Jade was living in her car she was fed up. Jade was shutting her out again, and Tori had enough of it.

Jade got extremely defensive after Tori’s spiel, she spat out with as much vengeance as she could possibly muster, “I’ve told you I don’t want to talk about it right now!”

Tori shot right back, “But that’s the thing Jade, you never want to talk about it.” She waved her hands in frustration, “I can’t keep waiting around for you to decide you trust me enough to let me in.” She placed her hand over her heart, she was getting emotional at this point, “You must trust me at least a bit in order to keep coming to my room every night.” She removed her hand from her heart and took another step toward Jade, tears threatening to fall, “Or did you figure you could go to the ‘naïve nice girl who can’t say no to anything’ or the girl who’s helplessly in love with you and play on her emotions--”

Jade was hurt, she was insulted; she couldn’t believe Tori would question her like that. How could Tori think she doesn’t care, that she’s just playing her like a fool? Believe it or not Jade values Tori’s friendship a million times more than the rest of her friends combined. She couldn’t describe the way she felt for Tori, but she cared about her deeply, and having Tori question that truly hut Jade. She had tears of her own falling from her face, and with a voice full of contempt, Jade yelled, “I would _never_ do that! I’m not as heartless as I might seem.”

Tori closed the distance between the two of them, grabbing a hold of Jade’s hand in the process. Her voice and demeanor softened, and she quietly whispered, “Then tell me Jade, what are we doing?”


	14. Friday

One Week Later:

It had been a week since the incident. Jade had left Tori standing alone in the middle of the stagehouse. Tori couldn’t believe she left. Surprisingly though, she didn’t cry when Jade walked out the door. Instead Tori shook her head in disappointment and shrugged it off. She was done crying, she was done with being angry, all she could feel was disappointment. Disappointed at Jade’s inability to trust her, disappointed by Jade’s actions, disappointed Jade left,  but mostly Tori was just disappointed in herself.

Tori always believed she had this amazing ability to help people, it was something she loved doing. Numerous times she would get herself in sticky situations just to help out a friend. Sometimes it wouldn’t even be a friend; she loved to help anyone and everyone who needed it. And the majority of the time she was successful. Not this time she thought. She had been so obsessed with trying to help Jade she was unable to see that Jade didn’t want help, she just wanted comfort, someone to distract her from the world. And that’s why Tori felt so disappointed in herself, she had been so selfish in trying to satisfy her need to help Jade, that she was blind to what Jade really needed, a friend.

Jade hadn’t come through the window any night since. At school other than the occasional “Vega” in which Tori would respond “Jade” the two wouldn’t talk directly to each other.  They both went about life as usual, like nothing was wrong. That was until Friday afternoon…

Jade made her way out of school and set out on her usual walking route to her car. Upon arrival she was surprised at what the sight in front of her. Tori Vega was sitting in the front passenger’s seat of Jade’s car looking down at her phone. Jade stood there a moment as if deciding whether or not to run. Before Jade could make up her mind either way, Tori looked up making eye contact with her confused friend.

Tori opened the door and got out of the car, making her way around the front to where Jade was standing. “Look Tori, I’m not—” Jade began to speak, but Tori raised her hand in a stop motion to silence her. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry…”

“Tori you don’t—” Jade began to interrupt waving her hand as if saying ‘it’s no big deal’, Tori grabbed one of Jade’s hands before cutting her off again. “Please just let me say this.” Tori pleaded. Jade nodded in response, allowing her to continue. “I was so caught up in my feelings and trying to help you, I never stopped to consider what you wanted. I should’ve just asked instead of just doing anything without even talking to you first. Everything was all my fault, I’m sorry I pushed you.”

Tori took a step back and looked at the ground, Jade took that as a signal that she was allowed to comment. “Tori,” Jade began, but she wasn’t really sure where she was going to go with it, “I know you were only trying so hard because you care. And this is just as much my fault as yours, I overreacted, I was immature and stupid. But Tori, I don’t want you to ever feel like you haven’t helped me. You’re the only reason I’ve made it this far.”

Jade took a step closer to Tori, taking both hands in her own.  She stared at their intertwined hands as she fiddled with them, deep in thought. “I don’t know how to label this...this thing, between us, but you should know that this past week has been hell without you…” Jade finally looked up to meet Tori’s eyes that shown brightly with affection. Tori was going to say something, but Jade went on again before Tori had the chance to, “And if it’s okay with you, I’d…I’d like to, to take you out, like on a date or something.” Jade felt like a complete stooge, embarrassed by her shy awkwardness, she bowed her head in attempt to hide her face. She couldn’t believe how ridiculous she sounded.

Tori released one of Jade’s hands, using it to gently lift Jade’s chin. Tori leaned in to place a quick kiss on Jade’s nose before smiling brightly, “I’d love to.” Jade’s face grew a bright shade of red which only made her feel more awkward, Tori just giggled at Jade’s shyness. She thought it was super adorable.

Jade took a moment to regain her composure before responding, “Great, tomorrow night? Say 8?”

“Sure. Eight sounds great,” Tori happily peeped, proud of her rhyming. She backed up to lean against the hood of Jade’s car before asking, “So are you going to stop sleeping in your car, and stay over tonight?”

Jade made her way over to the car sitting on the hood next to Tori, “Hmmm….I think it might be a bit weird if I sleep over before we even have our first date.” Jade smirked.

“Jade, you’ve been sleeping with me for like 6 weeks.” Tori interjected without realizing how wrong her wording sounded.

“I wish.” Jade shot out. Tori playfully swatted Jade’s arm at this comment practically pushing her off the car in the process, Jade chuckled before adding, “We’ll see Tor. I have a big date to plan.”

“Well either way, be careful. I wouldn’t wanna be stood up on the first date.”

Jade placed her hand on top of Tori’s thigh, pat it lightly, and said, “I can guarantee that won’t happen. And I promise I won’t run out on you this time.”

“Don’t be late.” Tori leaned over to give Jade a kiss on the cheek, before getting up and walking home.

Jade watched her leave up until she rounded the corner, out of view. She got into her car and began thinking about tomorrow; she wasn’t lying when she said she had a big date to plan.


	15. The First Date

Tori was anxious for her date with Jade all day. She wondered what Jade had planned and where she was going to take her. She still couldn’t believe Jade asked her out. It was like a dream, she wanted this day to happen for so long she couldn’t believe it was becoming a reality. Jade and Tori were going on a date, not best friends hanging out date, but a real romantic date. It made her giddy just thinking about it. She knew how she felt about Jade, she has liked her for over a year now. She never thought Jade would ever return those feelings. So to have Jade ask her out was really was a dream come true.

As it got closer to eight, Tori began getting ready, practically bouncing in excitement the whole time. She took a shower, got dressed in the perfect date outfit, and went about styling her hair and doing other pre-date touchups. At 7:56 the doorbell to the Vega residence rang, announcing Jade’s arrival. Tori’s sister Trina was sitting on the couch, remote in hand flipping through channels deciding what to watch. When the doorbell rang she didn’t bother moving, but instead yelled to her sister who was upstairs finishing getting ready, “TORI! Get the door!”

Tori was looking in her mirror, putting on her earring when she heard her sister’s call, frustrated she hollered back, “Why can’t you get it? I’m busy!”

Trina just sat there and continued to flip through the channels, “And you think I’m not?”

Tori growled at her sister’s reply, _oh I’m sure._ She knew her sister wasn’t doing anything important at the time. She hurried around her room grabbing her things and took one last look in the mirror to check her hair and makeup. With a smack of her lips, Tori practically ran down the stairs. She gave her sister the stink eye once seeing what business kept her from answering the door. She quickly opened the door, smiling widely at the site of her date, “Jade!”

Jade gave a small curtsey and replied, “On time, as promised.” She gestured to Tori, “You look great by the way.”

Tori blushed lightly at the compliment before turning inside, “Thanks, just give me a sec, I need to grab my jacket.”

Jade just stood in the doorway watching her, “Take your time. I’ll be here.”

Tori grabbed her purse and jacket and followed Jade outside yelling, “Ok ready, bye Trina be back later!” She could hardly hear her sister’s bored reply before closing the door. “Yeah, Yeah whatever.”

Tori turned to Jade and followed her to her car, which had fewer boxes in it than yesterday. She figured Jade had put them somewhere as to make it possible to see out the windows. “So where are we going?” Tori inquired while getting into the car.

Jade replied while putting on her seatbelt and pulling out of the Vega’s driveway, “Well I thought we could eat first, if that’s ok with you.”

Tori had been so amped for her date all day; she forgot to eat lunch so she was definitely hungry, “Sounds good, so where are we eating?”

 Jade kept her eyes on the road as she answered, “It’s a surprise.”

Tori just looked at her and feigned shock, “A surprise? Jade West hate’s surprises.”

“True, but this is a special night, so I’ll make an exception.” Jade glance over at Tori and smiled brightly. This caused Tori to blush; she looked out the window to hide her reddening cheeks. They spent the rest of the car ride in an easy silence.

Jade pulled up to the familiar abandoned building, “Here we are.”

“The playhouse?” Tori furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She had no idea why Jade brought her here of all places for their date. She expected dinner and a movie, bowling, something normal, something cliché even, but this this was far from what she expected.

Jade could sense Tori’s confusion, so she turned to her to explain, “Yea, well I figured that this place meant a lot to you from what you were saying last time we were here. And I feel like I ruined that for you, I didn’t want your last memory of this place to be negative.” She reached over and grabbed one of Tori’s hands, “Plus you said it yourself this place was the beginning of our friendship, I thought it would be appropriate for it to be the start of our relationship as well.”

Tori blushed again for what seemed like the millionth time that night, “Aww Jade, thank you. That’s so sweet. You are quite the romantic aren’t you?”

Jade just shrugged her shoulders, “I try. Come on, let’s eat.” She jumped out of the car, making her way to the other side to open Tori’s door for her. Grabbing Tori’s hand, Jade led them into the building, turning on the lights to reveal in the middle of the stage a picnic blanket and basket set up with pillows and a stereo to complete it. “I hope you like potato salad.” Jade mentioned nervously, she was really afraid Tori wouldn’t like the picnic idea, or worse laugh at her for it. She was so caught up in her nerves she didn’t notice how she held her breath as Tori made her way to the stage, only beginning to breathe again after Tori turned around and said, “Jade this is perfect.” She was so relieved Tori liked it, it was so important to her to impress Tori, to show her that she does care and she really is interested in this relationship, that it’s not just some experiment or ploy to hurt her.

Tori dragged Jade from her thoughts, “Shall we?” They made their way over to the stage and sat down. They doled out food on their plates, turned the radio on softly in the background. They just sat, ate, talked, laughed, and every now and then when a good song came on the radio they would turn it up and sing loud, just dancing and being carefree. They had so much fun just hanging out and being together.

After a while of singing and dancing they laid down to catch their breath. “This is so much fun.” Tori said while settling her head into the pillow. She looked over at Jade, “Thank you.” Jade just looked at her waiting for an explanation. “This has been such a great night. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a first date. And I can tell you really put a lot of thought into this, so for that I thank you.”

Jade grabbed Tori’s hand and rolled onto her side to face her directly, “I wanted to make this night special. You only get one first date, so you better do it right or there won’t be a second.”

Tori looked over at Jade and timidly asked, “So you want a second date?” She became very quiet and shy, afraid to hear the answer, she had such a great time tonight, and she likes Jade so much, she was terrified that Jade had changed her mind about exploring their relationship, that she would want to go back to being friends, and nothing more.     

Jade sat up and looked down at Tori, she took on a serious demeanor, “Of course I do. Tori, you’ve got to calm down. I wouldn’t have asked you out in the first place if I didn’t really like you. I’m not gonna let you talk yourself out of this relationship because you think I’m not ready. Because trust me I’m ready, and I want this.”

 Tori began to get a little emotional at this declaration; all her nerves and fears were lifted away. Her eyes were welled with unshed tears, the happy kind of course. She sat up to meet Jade’s eyes, she searched them for the longest time, she wanted to say something, but as cliché as it sounds she got lost in Jade’s eyes, mesmerized by the intense color, and before she could think of something to say Jade had leaned in and caught her lips in an unexpected kiss.

Now this wasn’t the first time they kissed, but it sure did feel like it. Their lips moved in sync like they had been doing this their whole lives. Tori’s hand went to the back of Jade’s neck, softly pulling her in closer, while Jade’s hand went to the side of Tori’s face, her thumb caressing her prominent cheek bones. They were lost in the kiss; they were lost in each other.

It wasn’t until they needed air, that they broke apart. “Wow.” Tori mused.

“Wow’s right. Who woulda thought Little Miss Innocent Tori Vega was such a good kisser.” Jade smirked.

Tori just smiled and playfully pushed Jade’s shoulder, “Hey, I’m not as innocent as you think.”

Jade chuckled at this statement, “Well, I’d love to find out.”

“Shut up. I’m not that kind of girl.” Tori grabbed Jade with both hands by the back of the neck and pulled her in for another kiss. This one was short and sweet, and both girls were smiling the whole time.

They continued their evening singing and dancing to the radio, throwing grapes at each other trying to catch them with their mouths, and just having a great time. About 2 hours later Tori asked, “You said we should eat first, was there somewhere else you were planning on taking me?”

“Oh yeah!” Jade was having so much fun here that she completely forgot about her other plans, she checked her phone for the time before adding, “Well it’s already eleven, I should get you home. We can save that for our second date.”

And with that the girls packed up their picnic set up and made their way back to the car, the whole ride back to Tori’s house they sung their hearts out along to the radio and laughing out loud. Once they pulled up into the Vega’s driveway Jade turned the radio down and turned towards Tori, “I had a great time tonight.”

Tori turned to face Jade, “So did I and I can’t wait to find out what’s in store for our second date.” She didn’t want tonight to end, she had so much fun. She was already getting excited about their next date, and they hadn’t even finished their first one.

“Well you’ll just have to wait and see. How about Friday night?” Jade suggested.

“Friday is wonderful. Not being presumptuous but did you want to sleep over?” Tori pointed to the house behind her.

“No, I got it covered tonight. But I’ll call you tomorrow, I’m gonna need some distraction from all that homework Holder assigned.” Jade just smiled.

“I look forward to it.” Tori leaned over and gave Jade one last kiss before turning to open her door. She got out and leaned down to look at Jade, “Goodnight.”

“Sweet dreams Tor.” And with that Tori shut the door, made her way to her front door, and waved at Jade watching her pull out of the driveway. Once inside, Tori leaned against the door closing her eyes and relishing in her wonderful first date with the girl she loved, Jade West.


	16. Post Date Jade

“Sweet dreams Tor.” Jade said as Tori shut the car door and made her way to her front porch. Jade watched her as she opened the door and turned to wave goodbye. She smiled to herself, thinking about how lucky she was to have Tori in her life. Tonight had been the best date she’d ever had, hell it had been one of the best days in general. She had been hesitant at first about the aspect of starting a relationship with Tori, not that she was a girl, that didn’t matter to Jade at all. Love is love no matter who it’s between, if you’re special enough to find love with someone then it shouldn’t matter their gender, age, race, or anything else. That’s how Jade looked at it. So no, being in a relationship with a girl didn’t faze her, but it was the particular girl that made her cautious.

Jade had a special relationship with Tori since the day they met that much was obvious. Tori was the first person who didn’t give a shit about Jade’s reputation as the school’s top dog bad girl. Tori fought back, and she respected her for that. Tori was this positive light who cared too much, and frankly it scared her sometimes. Jade was so afraid that she would hurt her, break her to the point where that light went out. That’s why she was hesitant to start their new relationship, her fear held her back…

After leaving Tori’s driveway, Jade made her way down the familiar route to the silver RV she was so well acquainted with, her ex-boyfriend’s house. She had been staying there overnight for the past week, ever since she had that fight with Tori. It’s not where she wanted to be, but at the time she really didn’t have any other choice…

_After Jade left the playhouse a week ago, she felt lost. She had no idea where to go or what to do. She wandered back to her car, and she sat in the driver’s seat for a couple hours thinking. She obviously couldn’t go back to Tori’s tonight, and it was too cold to sleep in her car. She went through the list of her ‘friends’ only to discover a reason to rule them out as well: she couldn’t stand being around Andre’s grandma, she wasn’t in the mood to be drowned by Cat’s super perky attitude, there was no way in hell she would stay with Robbie cause God knows what that puppet would do to her in her sleep. That left her with only one other option, Beck._

_She had stayed with Beck before, back when they were dating, when things like this happened, but that only ever lasted a few days. If she couldn’t stay with him for that short amount of time back then when they were ‘in love’ then how the hell was she gonna be able to stay with him for who knows how long now? She had to suck it up and deal cause it was her last bet, so she started her car for the first time in weeks and drove to Beck’s RV._

_Naturally at the time Jade arrived Beck was still in school, since Tori and her skipped. She decided to just wait there for him to come home, there was only about an hour left of school by that point. When he pulled up into his driveway, Beck was shocked to see Jade’s car sitting there. He walked over to the driver’s window, backpack flung over one shoulder, and book in the hand not knocking on the window. Jade, embarrassed, rolled down her window. Beck took note of all the boxes in her car, knowing instantly what they meant. “Come on inside, we can talk.” Jade just looked at him with a sad expression, “Or not, you’re call.” And Beck opened the door for her, letting her walk into the RV first._

_Once settled inside he just looked at Jade, waiting for her to speak first. After several minutes of silence he finally chimed in, “So…what’s up?” he cracked his usual charming smile, hoping that if he doesn’t question her that he can at least get her talking, this silence was making him uncomfortable._

_Jade looked up from the spot on the floor she had been fixed on for the past few minutes, and made eye contact for the first time since he got home. She couldn’t make small talk, so she just cut right to the chase. “Can I stay here tonight?”_

_Beck’s face relaxed, “Of course, what are friends for right?”_

_Jade looked confused, she couldn’t believe how lax he was being with all of this. Sure he was a very chill guy, one to go with the flow and not worry about anything, hell that was one of the things she really liked about him when they first started dating, but near the end she couldn’t stand it. But once again Jade was finding herself loving this aspect of him. “You sure it won’t be too weird?”_

_Beck just shook his head, “Nah, it’s not a problem.”_

_And so with that they moved on. Beck filled Jade in on what she missed at school; they worked on homework, and just talked. Jade didn’t tell him anything about Tori or how they skipped school, how she had been staying with her for almost 2 months, and no details about why her car was piled high with boxes. And Beck never asked, instead he just enjoyed his company like if it were Andre, or anyone else who came over to chill. Plus he knew the kind of girl Jade was, he should since he dated her for practically 3 years._

_This routine went on through the weekend and into the school week. Beck knew something was up, but he minded his own business. As long as she was safe and going to school, he wasn’t gonna interfere without Jade’s permission._

So that’s how it came about, Jade staying at Beck’s, that’s why after dropping Tori off after their date, she made her way to Beck’s place. Throughout the week Beck had left the door unlocked that way Jade could come and go as she pleased. So when Jade told Beck she was going out earlier, there was no problem as to scheduling when she’d be home. But when Jade came through the door at 11:45pm Beck questioned her, “Late night.” He said it like a statement, but Jade knew that was his way of asking a question looking for an answer without actually making it seem like he wanted to know the answer.

“Had important things to do.” She shrugged off his question, and went about getting ready for bed.

“Hmmm, right. Important things that took _4 hours_ to do.” He was poking now, big smile on his face, he had an idea as to why she was out. “You had a date!” He was grinning now, having fun messing with her.

Jade’s cheeks grew red, and that confirmed Beck’s suspicions. “This is so weird; I am _not_ talking to you about this.”

“Ha! So you admit you were on a date.” He poked her crimson cheek, lightly laughing at her discomfort. He was so happy they were at a place in their friendship again where they could mess and tease each other like this. It had been so long since they had that level of comfort with each other, the last few months of their relationship had been one prolonged screaming match, and the months after their break up had been an uncomfortable tenseness that even their friends could feel.

Jade decided it was best to be quiet, and stop incriminating herself with her defending words. She went about getting changed, and working on some last minute revisions to a scene in her new play, before lying down in Beck’s bed. Now they had been sharing the bed for the past week, strictly platonic, just sleep nothing more. At first Jade didn’t want to and offered to sleep on the floor, saying he was already doing enough be letting her stay there. Beck wouldn’t have it; he said they were adult enough to share a bed without any strings. They argued back and forth for a good 20 minutes before Jade finally gave in and got into the bed. And Beck was right, all they did was sleep on their respected sides of the bed and nothing happened. 9 times out of 10 Beck was up before Jade even woke up, saying his hair acquired extra attention and care than normal boys. She scoffed at this, saying he was the girliest manly man she ever met, a true oxymoron.

They went to bed as usual and Beck fell asleep quickly after. Jade on the other hand was still on such a high from her amazing date with Tori, she couldn’t fall asleep. She kept replaying the night’s events in her head, she couldn’t wait until she saw her again, got to talk to her. She wondered if Tori was still awake, still elated from their date like she was. She thought about sending her a text, but she didn’t want to seem clingy. Almost two hours later Jade was finally starting to nod off onto sleep, and just as she was about to be totally asleep, she was jolted into consciousness after a lithe arm encircled her stomach……


	17. Realizations

Jade awoke to the darkness of Beck’s RV, suddenly wide awake at the touch of Beck’s arm. _What the hell?!_ She immediately shoved him off her and off the entire bed in the process. He landed with a harsh thud, and groggy whines of pain. Jade had jumped off the other side of the bed, standing there waiting for Beck to emerge from the floor on the opposite side. Beck slowly raised himself up off the floor with a hand to his head trying to ease the pain by rubbing at the point of impact. He was obviously confused as to what the hell just happened, but before he could ask anything Jade yelled at him.

“What are you doing?!” She threw her arms up in anger then crossed them tightly around her chest.

Beck was struggling to keep his eyes open, as his pupils were trying to compensate in the darkness. He got up a little further, still rubbing his head. “What?” He asked in an obliviously confused tone. 

“Thought you could feel me up in your sleep!” Jade was pacing at this point. “We’ve been sharing a bed for a week and we never had a problem until now. Is this because of my date? Are you jealous that I’m finally happy, happy without you? God could you just get over yourself for one minute? You have girls swarming you practically 24/7 but that’s not enough for you is it? You have to have everyone bowing at your feet don’t you?! Jesus!” She was a rambling mess, she wasn’t even conscience of half the things that were coming out of her mouth, it was like word vomit, and she couldn’t stop it.

She wasn’t even acknowledging Beck at all during her entire rant. She was yelling at herself more than she was at him. And psychologically speaking she wasn’t yelling at Beck for what he did unknowingly, she wasn’t yelling at herself, mad that she put herself in this situation, that she should’ve know better. Her mind was racing with so many different conflicting thoughts and emotions, she didn’t know whether or not to scream some more or just give in and cry.

Beck had been sitting on the edge of his bed during Jade’s whole spiel, watching in worry. “Jade calm down,” He got up from the bed and placed his hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her. “What are you talking about?”

Jade shrugged his hand off her shoulder and sat down on the bed, “Don’t touch me!” She placed her head in her hands and huffed loudly. Beck just stood there, waiting in the silence. Jade racked her brain, trying to calm herself down. She had just flipped out like she was bipolar, and she thought she could be experiencing a panic attack. It wouldn’t be the first time. She tried to control her breathing and slow her heart rate. As she sat there only one thing was on her mind, Tori…

She thought back through the past few weeks, thinking about how her relationship with Tori had progressed over that time. She remembered how alone she felt on that first night over 6 weeks ago. How desperate and scared she was wandering around in the cover of darkness, only to feel a sense of relief once she realized where her self-conscience had brought her, Tori’s house. Over the next few nights, Jade let her guard down; she showed this intense vulnerable side that no one had ever witnessed until Tori. She cried numerous times, she admitted personal feelings, and she let Tori hold her and comfort her. Jade was so overwhelmed by Tori’s true care and affection, no one had every treated her with that much love.

Jade always had a weird affixation with Tori Vega. From Tori’s first day at Hollywood Arts she found herself fascinated with the new girl. She had always wondered what made her tick, why she was so happy all the time, and how in the hell could she give a shit about all these people who she hardly knew. She was confusing, infuriating, and most of all intriguing.

While Jade would always say they weren’t friends she knew they were, they were a different kind of friends. They had the kind of friendship that is unspoken, one that didn’t need establishing, it was just there from day one even though they didn’t realize it. And now Jade was realizing something else, she understood now why she had been so enamored with the other girl all along. She was beginning to realize that these feelings she’s been having for Tori over these past few weeks had been there the whole time. Feelings that went unnoticed and undefined for so long. And in discovering this, it only made her current situation feel wrong. She felt as if she was cheating on Tori, disrespecting her by sharing a bed with someone else, with her ex-boyfriend, even if it was in the most good natured sense, it still feel gross and wrong, and she couldn’t deal with it any longer…

Jade didn’t look up from the floor. They were sitting on opposite sides of the bed, and her back was to Beck. “I’m sorry.”

Beck just ran a hand through his hair, yawning a bit before replying, “S’ok. But could you tell me what happened?”

She turned her head toward Beck, she didn’t look at him, but she was facing his direction. “In your sleep you put your arm around me, like” Jade paused, turned back around, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest, “…well like you used too.”

Suddenly it all made sense to Beck, Jade pushing him off the bed, her long rant, and her body language. He felt instantly felt terrible. He loved Jade and really cared about her, and whether they were dating or not she was always going to be his best friend. It was just this past week had reminded him so much of old times, back before they started dating, and into the beginning of their relationship. Don’t get me wrong, he got over Jade a long time ago, and he knew they wouldn’t work as a couple anymore. But even that doesn’t keep one from missing the past. So when he was granted some time with Jade that reminded him of those happy times they used to share, his subconscious went back to that time, believing they were together.  Never in a million years would Beck want to hurt Jade, and he was so happy that she was finally with someone who seemed to make her extremely happy whoever that person may be…

So yes he felt terrible for his unconscious actions. He placed a hand over his face, rubbing at his forehead as one does when they did something stupid. He kept his voice low and strong, “Oh. Look Jade you know I didn’t mean any-“

Jade turned around, and made eye contact with him for the first time that night, cutting him off, “I know. I just, I..I can’t have this” she gestured in between the both of them, “this, whatever this is going on.” She placed her head in her hands, sighing deeply, “God this whole thing is so fucked up.” She got off the bed and put on her coat, grabbing her bag, “I can’t be here right now. I’ll be back tomorrow for my stuff.” She quickly made her way to the door.

Beck stood up, “Wait Jade, where are you gonna go?”

She had ahold of the door handle, about to push it open; she turned and simply stated, “Where I should’ve gone in the first place.” And with that she left Beck’s RV leaving him standing there wondering where she was headed. He stood there a moment before turning back to his bed and going back to sleep.

Jade got in her car and began to drive; she knew where she was going. She knew she should’ve gone there in the first place, to stay there. When she reached her destination, she got out of her car, walked up to the front porch, took out her phone and sent a text message.

_“Come to the door, I’m outside.”_

                                          


	18. Midnight Dreams

It was nearing midnight and Tori was fast asleep in her bed, dreaming of Jade, something she had been doing for months. She had such a great time on their first date, Tori had been waiting for this moment for the longest time, and finally experiencing it, something she never believed would happen, made her feel like a kid on Christmas. It took her longer than usual to fall asleep because she was on such a post-date high.

But only a few minutes after she finally nodded off, her phone rang loudly on her bedside table. Groggily she fought to open her eyes against the stark light from her phone. Through squinted eyes she read the text that woke her up, wondering what could have been so important at this hour. _Jade: “Come to the door, I’m outside.”_

Tori rubbed her eyes trying to fully adjust to the darkness; she once again read the message realizing she read it right the first time. _What?_ was all she could think. She instantly got up from bed and rushed down the stairs. Her mind was racing, she was confused as to why Jade would be outside right now, at midnight.

Tori turned on the porch light before quickly opening the door. “Jade, I thought you weren’t staying over tonight.” She yawned before continuing. “And since when do you use the front door?”  She laughed a bit when she said this; it was weird to see Jade at the front door when she’s always used her bedroom window.

Jade smiled a bit at that and made her way into Tori’s living room, Tori shut the door as Jade continued. “I wasn’t planning on it, and the window seemed a little, nevermind.” Standing in the middle of the room Jade turned around to face Tori. “I just wanted to talk.”

Tori made her way across the room, and sat on the couch patting the cushion next to her motioning for Jade to sit. “Jade is everything ok? I mean not that I don’t love the surprise visit, it’s just we went out only a few hours ago.” Her voice took on a concerned tone, “did something happen between then and now?”

Jade quickly jumped in to calm Tori’s worry. “No nothing’s wrong.” She sat down, “Look, I just I…I thought you should know I’ve been staying at Beck’s this past week.” She looked at Tori’s face trying to read her reaction; Tori’s brow furred a bit in confusion but he didn’t show much else expression. Jade began to explain. “It wasn’t like that, and nothing happened. I just—”

Tori placed her hand on Jade’s upper arm, stroking it lightly. “Jade, it’s ok. I know you guys are really close.” She bowed her head close to look into Jade’s wandering eyes. “Plus out of all of our friends, Beck’s the only one I think I could tolerate being around for that long, well if Andre didn’t live with his grandma…” She began to lightly laugh at the thought of Andre’s grandma, _that is one crazy woman_.

Jade chuckled lightly in amazement. “How are you so cool with this?”

Tori shrugged her shoulders, “Did you kiss him?” Jade nodded her head no. “Did you sleep with him?”

Jade’s head snapped up quickly to look Tori in the eye, “No, we shared a bed but that was all.”

Tori’s face was blank, “Did anything happen I should know about?”

“Well..tonight after Beck fell asleep he,” Jade began shaking her head, “he unknowingly put his arm around me.”

Tori sat erect no emotion showed on her face, she just simply pushed,“And?”

“And I immediately pushed him of!” Jade violently stood up, “I practically tore his ear off yelling at him for it.”

Tori hung her head a bit, quietly stating, “So that’s why you came here.” She paused a moment, as if to think about what she was going to say. She trusted Jade and knew this wasn’t anything to fret over, but part of her felt unsure on Beck’s part. “Felt guilty or something, had to clear your conscience.”

“Sorta I guess,” Jade sat down and took ahold of one of Tori’s hands, resting it in her lap, “but Tori, the whole thing disgusted me. And as I was yelling at him, all I could think about was how wrong it felt being with him and how right things feel when I’m with you.” She squeezed Tori’s hand lightly, “I hate myself for fighting with you, I was so stupid,” Jade hung her head covering her face with her free hand, “I should’ve just swallowed my pride and gone to you, apologized,” she took in a deep breath and looked up at Tori, “and let you know that you’re the only good thing in my life right now. You’re the only one Tori, the only one who doesn’t make me feel like I’m worthless.”

Jade hung her head again, “My life has been less than perfect. Ever since I was little I’ve felt out of place, like I didn’t belong.” She looked up at Tori who was watching her intently, waiting patiently for her to continue.”My parents did the best they could, but no matter how hard they tried, I never felt right. Eventually they gave up on me, figured if I didn’t get it by now I never would. Our relationship has been distant at best ever since. My Father is better than my Mother, but you know you met him and that was on a good day.” She scoffed at remembering the day Tori met Jade’s day, the night of her play ‘Well Wishes’

Jade continued, “We live in a relatively small house by LA standards, but it feels so empty. You’d think the three of us would cross paths left and right, but honestly between my school and their jobs, I’m lucky if I see them at all.”

By this point Jade’s eyes were welling up with unshed tears. Tori grabbed Jade’s other hand so she was grasping both, reassuringly squeezing them to let Jade know she was there. “This isn’t the first time I’ve left. I stayed with Cat the first time, it only lasted three days, mainly cause I was young and temperamental, but also because her room was giving me a headache with all the pink and shit.” Tori genuinely laughed at this, it was a typical Jade reaction. Tori’s laugh made Jade smile for the first time during her story.

 “The second time lasted about two weeks, I stayed with Beck. Back then I honestly thought I wasn’t going back, that Beck and I would stay together forever and I’d never have to leave. But after the first week I started to realize I wasn’t ready for that, I wasn’t ready for a commitment. I had been alone for so long, that I couldn’t adjust to being around him 24/7, to being around anyone really. I had grown accustomed to being on my own and taking care of myself that I built these walls, refusing to let anyone close. I didn’t need anyone but myself and I was alright with that.” Jade’s voice had stayed relatively strong throughout, but by this point Tori’s eyes were starting to well with tears.

“Leaving this time I had no clue where I was going to go, I walked for hours.” Jade paused briefly smiling dumbly at herself as she remembered stumbling into Tori’s tree all those nights ago, “It wasn’t until I ran into the tree outside your window, I knew.” She bowed her head to hide the blush that was starting to appear on her cheeks. “You called my ‘Jadey-Bear’ in your sleep that night; it’s such a sickeningly cute nickname, but at the time it made me feel complete, for the first time in years.” Jade’s tears began to slowly flow down her cheeks, the way they do in movies, but never do in real life.

Jade slowly raised her head to see Tori staring at her, on the verge of crying. She could tell she was trying so hard not to let them fall, like she had to be strong for Jade, and that made Jade smile. “You’ve always had this weird power over me; I never understood it until tonight. You complete me, and I absolutely hate how cheesy and cliché that sounds, but there really is no other way to say it.” Jade laughed at her sappiness and Tori did too, her tears finally falling. “That part of me that’s been missing for as long as I can remember, the part my parents tried to fill, the part I went searching for numerous times, I finally found it. God I sound so sappy, and I’m crying, jees this is ridiculous.” Jade reached up to wipe the tears off her face, all the while lightly laughing at herself, while Tori did the same.

Jade grabbed Tori’s hands again, mindlessly fiddling with them like usual while adding, “I guess what I’m getting at is, I love you Tori. I love you and I need you to know that.” She gave Tori’s hands a tight squeeze this time.

Tori didn’t say anything; instead she leaned forward catching Jade’s lips in a passionate kiss, never breaking their hands apart. Once Tori pulled from the kiss she closed her eyes, rested her head against Jade’s forehead and whispered, “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

….

Once the girls were cuddled up under the covers of Tori’s bed and the lights were out, Jade broke the silence with one final question before they would drift off to sleep, “Are you gonna dream about me tonight?”

Tori smiled, and went in for another short kiss before answering, “Why dream when I have the real thing right here.”


	19. Epilouge

EPILOUGE:

Jade moved back home the following day. Her parents were happy she was home, and after having a long family discussion Jade believed things would be better between the three of them. Jade opened up to them about how she felt empty as a child and how their “abandoning” her only escalated her downward spiral. Her parents agreed they made mistakes and gave up too easily. Their conversation lasted hours and ended with Jade’s parents telling her how proud of her they are and how relieved they were that she was back. They even had a family hug and everything. Thing were finally starting to look up for Jade’s family problems.

Although Jade moved back in with her parents she still spent the night at Tori’s every now and then. She still used the window to, something about nostalgia kept her from straying from it. Both girls found themselves missing the warmth of the other girl that they found it hard to sleep. They would spend hours on the phone before going to bed, wishing each other goodnight and sweet dreams before hanging up and dreaming about each other.

Tori and Jade continued their relationship, and by their third date (about a week since their first date) all of their friends had figured out they were dating. Tori couldn’t keep it a secret from Andre and told him right away. Beck already knew Jade had been on a date and after a couple days of observation at school he finally figured out who made Jade so happy that night she pushed him off the bed. Cat excited to show Jade her new pet kitten accidentally walked in on the two of them making out on Jade’s bed.  Trina, much like Cat had accidentally walked in on one of their make out sessions, this time in Tori’s room. Robbie was the last to find out; it wasn’t until Cat had giggled about Jade sitting next to Tori at lunch one day that sparked a conversation revealing their relationship to the oblivious Robbie.

None of them, well besides Trina, were surprised by the girls news, in fact when Sinjin found out he said he knew they would get together all along, and Sikowitz admitted to trying to force them together by casting them as a couple in numerous plays as well as partnering them up for class projects whenever he got the chance. Everyone they knew was supportive and other than the handful of kids at school who gossiped about the pair no one really seemed to care.

After their four month anniversary Tori and Jade agreed to tell their parents. Tori’s mom admitted Trina told her soon after she herself found out. Her parents didn’t care; Tori came out to her parents a few years prior, she just hid her relationship with Jade from them because she was nervous, Jade was her first girlfriend. Tori had some experience with girls, flirting, kissing, and such at some Northridge parties as well as outings with some of her old friends from her other school. But Tori had never been in a relationship with any of them, but Jade was different and Tori knew she had something special with her. So in telling Tori’s parents they were just happy she finally found someone. They could see the light in Tori’s eyes when she talked about Jade, and vice versa. Now Jade’s parents were a little more surprised by the news, but they didn’t object. They figured as long as Jade was happy that’s all that really mattered, and they felt they owed it to Tori for bringing her daughter home and greatly improving their relationship with her.

Tori and Jade stayed together throughout the rest of their senior year. And looking into their future they found different paths but that didn’t affect their relationship at all. Jade moved into an apartment shortly after graduation, she beat out thousands of students to win an internship with a production company in Northern California and thus needed to move out there for that. Tori was accepted and enrolled into a performing arts college that was located only about twenty minutes away from Jade’s apartment. She even took a couple online courses through Tori’s school as a part time student.  

Although Tori lived on campus, she stayed at Jade’s at least three days a week. And every now and then, much to Tori’s roommate’s displeasure, Jade would stay in Tori’s dorm. They were happy together; they came a long way from that first night almost a year ago, and they were excited for their future together.

 

THE END


End file.
